If the director says you can do better, particularly in a love scene, then it is rather embarrassing.

Without a doubt, absolutely, a woman will be a president, and probably sooner rather than later. I am excited about that, and if what I did serves as a steppingstone for another woman down the...

The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.

I came from rather humble beginnings.

People don’t get through to the essence of you right away – it’s always the famous ‘girl’ or the famous ‘girlfriend’. I’d rather be known for myself.

New Orleans has to learn to live with water rather than in fear of water, and we need a master plan that shows us how to do this. It’s so critical that we send a...

Life should be great rather than long.

When I realised I had a facility for humour, I latched on to it, and it gave me confidence and I built my personality around it. So I subconsciously made myself become the funny one...

I like to employ a form of repetition, in which the same elements recur but in different and unexpected ways. rather than being discarded as soon as they are understood or passed over.

Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I’d rather not belong to.

Hateful is the power, and pitiable is the life, of those who wish to be feared rather than loved.

I would rather die than be a serious artist, or a fake artist.

I’d rather go to Vietnam than get married.

I think that rather than condemning Islam, Islam needs to be studied by those who are sincere.

Digital books and other texts are increasingly coming under the control of distributors and other gatekeepers rather than readers and libraries.

I think how veterans are treated in our country is an abomination. We don’t have the draft any more, which is why so many soldiers come from working-class – rather than middle- or high-income families....

I think that with piracy and tighter funds being around, people are realising that the game to play is to try and win people’s respect with bold film making and then win a special place...

When I give over to somebody’s vision rather than have an idea of what I need to do, it takes me to places I wouldn’t have got to by myself. I’m always attracted to a...

I wanted to be a pianist but it just wasn’t my thing. I guess I wanted to stand up rather than sit down.

I’d rather have one good scene in a movie by a great director than a small role in a mediocre movie.

So rather than face the bitter truth, China has placed severe restrictions on the Internet and enlisted America’s high-tech companies as their Internet police.

The U.S. embargo imposed on Nicaragua, rather than weakening the Sandinistas, actually maintained them in power.

I actually cannot stand a room without a view – I would rather have a bedroom the size of a closet with a view over a suite without one.

I’m quite discreet. I think I’d rather focus on my work. So, I only speak when I have something to say. ‘Live hidden, and live happy.’ Is that the same in English as it is...

Here we have a situation where a defendant in a case agrees to an interview with Dan Rather. It happened to be not confidential. But it was an interview with Dan Rather.

The aspect of congresses and such meetings generally to which I attach the greatest importance is the discussion. That is why people assemble: to hear different opinions, rather than to pass resolutions.

The fall couture presentations in Paris are usually my favorite moment on the fashion calendar: beautiful weather, a busy rather than manic schedule, and, let’s face it, seeing the artistry, the embroidery, and handmade magnificence...

A wingnut is someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of the political spectrum – the professional partisans, the unhinged activists and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. They’re the people who always try to divide...

Birds are the most popular group in the animal kingdom. We feed them and tame them and think we know them. And yet they inhabit a world which is really rather mysterious.

Mainstream animated movies are dumbed-down and sanitised: they make the world in their own image rather than exploring the limitless possibilities that are out there.

I have been criticized rather strenuously by painters and sculptors for not incorporating their work in our buildings.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

We have no general conceptual thrust for the band, other than trying to make music that keeps our interest. When things are novel, they are probably things we have discovered by accident or investigation rather...

It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

I believe we should reframe our response to climate change as an imperative for growth rather than merely being a way of being green or meeting environmental commitments.

A good cult delivers on its promises. A good cult nourishes the needs of its members, has transparency and integrity, and creates provisions for challenging its leadership openly. A good cult expands the freedoms and...

I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no hit game.

It’s glamorous when a movie is released, but then you feel disconnected from it. Someone asked if it wouldn’t be more glamorous for me being on Broadway rather than Off Broadway, but I thought, ‘What’s...

Blacks’ problems lie not in the heads of white people but rather in the wasted and incompletely fulfilled lives of too many black people.

I am, of course, a frustrated rock star – I’d much rather be a rock star than a writer. Or own a record shop. Still, it’s not a bad life, is it? You just sit...

Cue actor platitude, but I’ve been very fortunate and worked pretty consistently and have felt rather annoyingly grateful that I got to do what I got to do.

If Albert Einstein was right, Cal Ripken should have been a CEO or politician rather than a shortstop, because Ripken led by example over and over… and over again.

My view, as one who taught it, is that the whole purpose of a literary education should be to tell people that these things exist. I don’t think any teacher should try to ‘teach an...

I don’t have goals when writing books, apart from getting to the end. I have rather vague ideas about how I want things to feel, I’m big on ambience. I have a title, a beginning...

At the end of my trial, I was rather hoping the judge would send me to Australia for the rest of my life.

Wanting to be liked means being a supporting character in your own life, using the cues of the actors around you to determine your next line rather than your own script. It means that your...

Social media is called social media for a reason. It lends itself to sharing rather than horn-tooting.

Have you got a Beemer, an Audi, a Saab or a Volvo that replaced a Ford, Vauxhall, Rover or Nissan? Many Brits have. Your first Beemer. A particularly nice smell of leather. Something rather plain...

I don’t dislike babies, though I think very young ones rather disgusting.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the...