Becoming a writer is not a 'career decision' like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don't choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you're not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days.
I want that Sinatra type of fame. It's not the 'Whoever's the hot pop star at the moment' fame. It's the 'Walk into a room and everybody just kind of politely nods their heads' fame. Sinatra fame.
In life, we mostly manage to walk around interacting with each other fairly politely. But as soon as we get into our cars, we morph into something out of 'Mad Max'.
I've gotten a little bit pompous. When I get out in public, I really notice myself looking at my reflections as a I walk though. New York is not a great place for me.
On stage, I'm this figure, this actor, who does things that people aren't used to seeing and I relish in that reaction. In real life, though, I play golf, I shop and I walk around with no makeup on and my hair in a ponytail. I may not be the typical middle-aged Joe, but I'm closer to normal than you think.
I used to have long hair and get it done every two weeks, and it was never worth it to me. I would just walk out of the salon and put it in a ponytail anyway.
When you walk through a bad neighborhood, you don't want a poodle by your side. You want a Rottweiler.
True luxury is being able to own your time - to be able to take a walk, sit on your porch, read the paper, not take the call, not be compelled by obligation.
The Great Hall at the Met is one of the great portals of the world... From there, you can walk in any direction to almost any culture.
You can't assume anything in politics. That's why every Saturday I walk around my district. I talk to the longshoremen in Charlestown. I listen to the people in East Boston and their concern on the airport noise. I walk down to the Star Market in Porter Square, and people tell me about meat prices.
I still find it interesting that there could be a point between a young guy and a girl when they decide to hold hands as they walk down the block. At some point, they decide to make the leap from pushing and insulting each other to doing something tender and possessive and showing the world that.
President and Mrs. Kennedy would walk into the East Room with their honored guests, preceded by the military color guard, who then posted their flags behind the receiving line. This ceremony never failed to move all of us, no matter how many times the staff witnessed it.
Shoes define how you walk in the world and how you stand: like, what is your posture in life?
Back in 2008, after we'd won the election, no one really expected me to keep teaching. But I couldn't just walk away... So I did both. For eight years, that was my life's dichotomy. State receptions - and midterms. Dinner with the most powerful man on earth - and study sessions with single moms.
The United States is the most powerful nation on Earth and it just can't walk away from the Middle East and central Asia and the Horn of Africa.
What I wanted to do was to look at the powerlessness that I felt as - and continue to feel at times - as a black man in the American streets. I know what it feels like to walk through the streets, knowing what it is to be in this body and how certain people respond to that body.
Drugs are in every walk of life - doctors, lawyers, preachers, the guy who works for IBM, teenagers on the street, teenagers in school.
To walk behind others on a road you are traveling together, to give precedence to others without envy - this is painful for an individual and painful for a nation.
Anyone who has played the game professionally, you're always taught that the ball is the most important, most precious thing, so when the ball hits the ground, it's always a mad scramble. It's amazing how many times there is a fumble, and the person who recovers it initially doesn't walk away with the ball.
Don't speak ill of your predecessors or successors. You didn't walk in their shoes.
