The time for careers and passions was gone. Hunger pangs displaced ambition.

The grief of widowhood, of losing a husband and only to be harassed by his brothers, remained pressed on her.

Instead he was grabbing at whatever was available in this system that no longer held the old predictable relationship between effort and result as true

It was like she had been playing 'nhodo' with her life, foolishly trying to outsmart an imaginary playmate named Fate.

not writing is not good but trying to write when you can't is worse.

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance. [The ability to focus on positives and distract your mind from negatives for at least a time is a necessary skill for being happy.]

It seems to me that references to bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin meant more to me a year ago and all those old things are totally losing importance.

Traditional American values: Genocide, aggression, conformity, emotional repression, hypocrisy, and the worship of comfort and consumer goods.

I've been in a competitive situation almost all my life. I've been having a competition with myself and trying to be the best I could be.

Sending us Ebola bombs in the form of sweaty Glaswegians just isn't cricket.

But Dad and I are the only father-and-daughter acts who have both had No. 1 songs in England.

Women have a mother-nature and a daughter-nature; there are no women with a wife-nature. The quality of wife is an acquired character; it is a combination of mother and daughter.

When you look at where team sports are going, the National Football League is turning into organized warfare.

I've made lots of big decisions in my life that have shocked people.