Alison Quotes

I don't know much about death and the sorriest lesson I've learned is that words, my most trusted guardians against chaos, offer small comfort in the face of anyone's dying.

I find the songs I want to record by listening to as much music as I can. 'When I hear things I really like, I ask the writers to send me a tape of everything they've ever written.

It's impossible to make a record when you're ill because it affects how you listen to things. You can't make decisions. It all sounds terrible.

I have encouraged my kids to eat well from day one. I add flavor - herbs and spices - to everything because I don't want them getting used to starchy, bland food.

Playing a song changes a song. Every night a song becomes something else on stage.

I still think of myself as from Illinois.

What keeps me level is the refusal to let the best of human aspirations die in the face of the challenges. I make a moral decision to be hopeful.

I started with the classical violin when I was 6, and I guess it went well.

I don't get recognised in London or at home either - very seldom anyway. Either that or I look so crazy no one wants to come up to me.

It's very cool to be short, very cool. When I was in eighth grade, and the height I am now, I would just look at the cute little short girls and think, 'If only, if only.

There are so many great songs yet to sing.

A whole album to one writer - now that would be really interesting.

There's a restless feeling knocking on my door today.

I love being in the world of the unknown.

I grew up in beautiful Carmel, California, and I have extremely sweet parents that always loved nature and animals. They instilled such an appreciation for beauty and kindness that it was inherent.

I wish I had a typical workday. I struggle to get up at seven and almost always fail. I just try to get to my office as soon as I can, but it's always later than I would like.

I wasn't a great student. Just give me a school with no grades, and I'll be happy.

Actors never say they're poor. They're always broke. It's always just temporary. 'Broke' is 'poor with hope'.

If only they would all just leave me alone with my books and my letters, I would be content to let life, and the world pass me by

I know that love is about power, too. Who gives, who takes. Who is willing to risk showing their true self.

She has given me a way out.

Your future is uncertain, and I can tell you nothing that can help you. You are singular and dangerous, and so it is that you are sought by both the Dark and the Light.

There was a saying that a man's true character was revealed in defeat. I thought it was also revealed in victory.

Who embalms the Undertaker when he dies?

Not even I can see all ends, but I have been in this world long enough to know that a choice is not choice and breeds slow ills, even were it done for the highest reasons.

Becoming an adult means leaving the world of your parents and starting to make your way toward the future that you will share with your peers.

Fitness is not an option. It's part of my job.

Water seeks its own level. Look at them. The Tigris, the Euphrates, the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Yangtze. The world's great rivers. And every one of them finds its way to the ocean.

Men were always quick to believe in the madness of women.

It was not a triumphal return. Home, as I had known it, was gone.

I was definitely one of those people who fell for the fat-free cookies and chips that are loaded with sugar and calories.

All it takes is a single moment.

New York lesson 1 - never look lost. Lesson 2 - forget hallowed silences. It's the right of all Americans to talk at the tops of their voices.

The only good thing about being frightened half to death, she thought, is that it makes me forget all about being seasick.

I prefer to be left alone with my books.

You have forced your way into my Hua, Eona. Change me. First, by your power- then, just by who you are.

The countries that are the least responsible for causing climate change are paying the heaviest price.

One needs to be on guard against expecting external powers to decide when you can take yourself seriously as an artist. It can be a long wait - and lead to endless appetite.

I'm always doing poems from a place of not-knowing, a place of ignorance in a way.

When you're waiting for a bus, the thing to do is smoke a cigarette.

I grew up flying over oceans and moving and sailing.

Poetry is one of the most full ways of discovering what it feels like to be a human being in this particular moment, in this particular set of concerns. It's all about discovery.

I think you have to live inside your contradictions and find a way to accept that that's the human condition - to be forced to live in contradiction.

Life seems complicated to me; I feel confused a lot of the time by life. I feel confused about the fact that we can be so tender as creatures to one another, and so monstrous at the same time.

I'm filled with despair. We live in a pathological culture filled with rage and bitterness and greed. The hate-mongering and racism is reaching a frightening pitch.

I grew up in a school that had a big music program, and it was incredible. It's what I looked forward to during the day. I had chorus, strings, band.

Writers want recognition, audience, some corroboration that all those hours at the desk and in daydreams add up to something in the esteem of others.

There is no man who has not some interesting associations with particular scenes, or airs, or books, and who does not feel their beauty or sublimity enhanced to him by such connections.

People are always very nice.

I was never obese, but I felt 'less than' because I wasn't as thin as other actresses. I totally fell for that low-fat craze. My goal was to be X jeans size or a specific number on the scale.