If someone wanted to be a runner, you don't tell them to think about running, you tell them to run. And the same simple idea applies to writing, I hope.

~ Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak Idea Interview Motivational Rule The Guardian Writing Writing Advice

I think it’s vital. It’s odd to me because many people say we live in these awful times and we need culture and art especially in times like these, in these dire times. Well, first of all, I don’t think these times are more dire than other times. People who say that just need to go back and read Herodotus, read any book of history, read a biography of Attila the Hun. If people are going to wring their hands over these troubled times, I would think that humor should be indispensable. I find it strange that –at least in my take on it—the people who are the most alarmed about the dire times we live in are the ones who seem to be humorless, in their taste for poetry anyway. Humor is just an ingredient.

~ Billy Collins

Billy Collins Interview Poet

I’m working on another Lyra book right now – it’s called The Book of Dust.“It’s going very well and it will be finished when I write the words ‘The End’.

~ Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman Cute Interview

Piracy is the new radio.

~ Neil Young

Neil Young Interview Marketing Truth

Stirton's work, he says, is now all about investigation. 'You literally are trying to find out what's happening and, finally, manoeuvre yourself to the point where you can take a picture, and then you're presented with a 20-minute window where it's: Okay, now get your picture!' His voice is charged with emotion. 'Fucking angst and worry and, you know, FEAR of failure – every aspect of that comes into those 20 minutes, so it's a very intense experience. So when I make those pictures, I'm worried; I’m nervous.

~ Antonella Gambotto-Burke

Antonella Gambotto-Burke Anxiety Disorders Brent Stirton Interview National Geographic Photographer Photography Prize Winning Photographer

I knew that my trauma, no matter what it was, was not unique. I knew that pain was the universal driving force of so many people—I knew that only in the details was it specific, and I just found it urgent to cut right to the chase and get right to the point.

~ Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch Art Interview Spoken Word Trauma V Vale

As for reading, I wish I had a magic door to a library where I could go in, read for days and days, and come back in the same minute I left. I'm still looking for the door.

~ David Mitchell

David Mitchell Books Door Guardian Interview Libraries Library Reading Webchat

I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public, they forget that invisibility is a superpower.

~ Banksy

Banksy Anonymity Fame Interview Invisibility Privacy Superpower Timeout

Those who are rich cannot see reasons for poor becoming poorer and those who are poor cannot see reasons for rich getting richer.

~ Santosh Kalwar

Santosh Kalwar Economy Getting Richer Humanity Interview Poor Reasons Rich

Zombies are the middle children of the otherworldly family. Vampires are the oldest brother who gets to have a room in the attic, all tripped out with a disco ball and shag carpet. Werewolves are the youngest, the babies, always getting pinched and told they're cute. With all that attention stolen away from the middle child Zombie, no wonder she shuffles off grumbling, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.

~ Kevin James Breaux

Kevin James Breaux Humor Interview Zombies

R means under 18 accompanied by an adult. Therefore all corporately funded films in the US must be made with the concept that those under the age of 18 are able to view the film. This means all corporately funded films in the US are made for the eyes of children.

~ Crispin Hellion Glover

Crispin Hellion Glover Cinema Film Interview Movies Mpaa R R Rating Soiled Sinema

If you’re purely after facts, please buy yourself the phone directory of Manhattan. It has four million times correct facts. But it doesn’t illuminate.

~ Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog Facts Illuminate Interview Manhattan Npr Phone Directory

Being a full-time feminist means that every day I make a choice to make equality a part of my life, mind, and behavior. I set out purposefully to support women, to create a dialogue with men, and to interject when I see ignorance and misunderstanding. For me this has meant that in my work I often choose to share my financial gains with women (although I do also employ men regularly, to film my music videos or produce my songs with my band Girlboy), and when I see a woman working, or reaching for her ambitions, I like to show my support. In my romantic relationships with men, this has meant when there is misunderstanding, I take the time to think about why that could be, and to discuss whatever problems we face. Thinking about the influence of the gender concept on our behavior and decisions is now ingrained in my subconscious.

~ Abigail Tarttelin

Abigail Tarttelin Abigail Tarttelin Female Writers Feminist Interview

The first interview I went on I got at age 5. It was a commercial for First Federal Bank.

~ Erin Moran

Erin Moran Bank First Interview