“I grew up in Middle America and I don't think my family was very funny, but I watched 'The Princess Bride.' I always wanted to be an actor. I didn't know anything about it. I'd never seen any plays or anything and I watched that movie over and over and over again.” ThinkingKnowsPlayWantedAmericaActorsMiddleGrewGrew UpMy FamilyPrincessBridesPrincess BrideMiddle America Author:Missi Pyle
“I felt like the luckiest kid in the world. And I was. I was growing up middle-class in a time when growing up middle-class in America meant there would be jobs for my parents, good schools for me to prepare myself for a career, and, if I worked hard and played by the rules, a chance for me to do anything I wanted.” IfsWorldHardWould BeKidsWantedSchoolJobsAmericaFeltParentChanceClassCareersGrowing UpGrowingMiddleMiddle ClassGood School Author:Al Franken
“Second, there are so many magical places in books that you cant go to, like Hogwarts and Middle Earth, so I wanted to set a story in a place where children can actually go.” ChildrenBookStoriesWantedEarthMiddleCantMiddle EarthHogwartsMagical Places Author:Cornelia Funke
“Cutting taxes is not bad. But if you cut taxes on the wealthy, which is what they wanted to do, you're not helping people who need better schools and better infrastructure and healthcare. You're basically robbing the middle class and the poor to provide tax cuts to the rich.” PeopleIfsNeedsHelpingWantedSchoolPoorClassRichCuttingMiddleTaxesMiddle ClassWealthyHealthcareInfrastructureHelping PeopleTax CutsRobbing Author:Robert Reich
“I didn't take care of the kids. I took care of the interior decoration of the house. I wanted to be an architect, so I curated that aspect of things. In the middle of the chaos, I moved things around and rearranged everything to find my order.” CareKidsWantedOrderHouseMiddleAspectMovedChaosTake CareArchitectInteriorsDecoration Author:Giovanna Cau
“I better make the plot good. I wanted to make it grip people on the first page and have a big turning point in the middle, as there is, and construct the whole thing like a bit of a roller coaster ride...” PeopleFirstsWholeBigsWantedMiddlePagesPlotConstructsTurning PointsRoller CoasterCoastersRoller Coaster Rides Author:Mark Haddon
“In the Middle Age, in Germany, if you wanted to learn addition and multiplication, you could go to any university. But if you wanted to learn division, you could only do it in one place, Heidelberg. This makes sense, since in my theory with Vladimir Retakh and Robert Wilson, addition and multiplications are cheap, but division is expensive.” IfsAgeWantedScienceMiddleTheoryMathematicsUniversityMake SenseGermanyExpensiveDivisionMiddle AgesWilsonMultiplication Author:Israel Gelfand
“If we wanted a program to help the majority of the population, we'd offer loan guarantees to help poor people get access to reliable cars so that they could have a better shot at getting - and keeping - a well-paying job...A small amount of capital could make a much bigger difference in their lives than extra student loan relief for middle-class college kids would.” PeopleIfsWellsHelpingRealityKidsWantedJobsPoliticsCommunityDifferencesWorkPoorMoneyEducationClassPovertyMiddleCarPolicyStudentsCollegeAmountOffersShotsProgramBiggerMajorityStrategyPropertyPopulationAccessExtrasGuaranteesReliefMiddle ClassPoor PeopleLoanSmall AmountsHelp The PoorStudent LoanHelp Poor People Author:Megan McArdle
“I didn't want any middle-of-the-road creep. I always wanted the toughest guy in school, the guy from south Philly who wore tight black pants. Y'know, the guy who carried the umbrella and wore white shirts with real thin black ties. I was really nuts over this guy named Butchie Magic 'cause he let me carry his switchblade.” KnowsWantRealWantedSchoolGuyCausesBlackWhiteMagicMiddleLet MeSouthShirtsTiesNutsPantsThis GuyCreepsUmbrellaMiddle Of The RoadWhite ShirtsBlack Tie Author:Patti Smith
“I've always wanted to be a voice actor. Well I think at first I wanted to be a singer. Then in middle school I auditioned for a musical and I only really cared because I wanted to sing in it. I had to act as well as part of the audition and that was the first time I ever really acted, and I was like 'Oh hey, this is fun, I like doing this.'” ThinkingFirstsWellsWantedSchoolActorsFunVoiceMiddleFirst TimeMusicalSingersHeyAuditionsMiddle School Author:Ashly Burch
“We liked the idea that it was a low-tech future. But everything always repeats the past. If you look today and look at something in the middle east where you got people getting beheaded it's like the crusades with Twitter. It's crazy, human nature does the same thing. In a way, even though you're in the future people wanted order so this sort of system rose up.” PeopleIfsWayHumansLooksDoeIdeasTodayWantedPastOrderCrazyMiddleHuman NatureLowsRoseEastRepeatsMiddle EastCrusades Author:Alfred Gough
“The history of life was not the bumbling progress - the very English, middle-class progress - Victorian thought had wanted it to be, but violent, a thing of dramatic, cumulative transformations: in the old formulation, more revolution than evolution.” WantedClassProgressMiddleRevolutionEvolutionTransformationViolentDramaticMiddle ClassVictorianCumulativeHistory Of Life Book:The Satanic Verses Source: The Satanic Verses
“I don't have to get a pitch down the middle. If I like the pitch-even if it's 15 inches off the plate, and that's the pitch I wanted-I'm swinging.” IfsWantedMiddleInchesPlates Author:Vladimir Guerrero
“To me representing clairvoyance, how was I going to achieve that, how I was going to capture that? For me, it all became about her gaze and the way she takes you in. It's a rhythmic thing and a stillness thing to consider but these are little details, little nuances. We were invited to the sanctity of her home and there were roosters running around and she's screaming, "Jackie, be quiet!" Even though she's in the middle of the thing. And these are the details that we wanted to incorporate into our story.” WayLittlesStoriesHomeRunningWantedMiddleAchieveQuietDetailsCaptureStillnessInvitedRepresentingNuanceSanctityJackieRoostersClairvoyance Author:Vera Farmiga
“I've been acting since I was young because I wanted to, not because my parents wanted me to. My dad is a principal and mom is a middle school counselor, so acting was like, "Eh, whatever. As long as you get good grades." It's really fun, and nothing more.” LongWantedSchoolYoungFunParentActingMiddleMomDadMy DadGradesPrincipalMiddle SchoolCounselorGood Grades Author:Shailene Woodley
“If you really wanted to settle down the Middle East, if what you wanted was change in the Middle East, it is perfectly obvious that the first step is resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.” IfsFirstsWantedStepsMiddleConflictObviousEastSettlingMiddle EastFirst StepsPalestinianIsraeliSettling DownIsraeli Palestinian Conflict Author:Molly Ivins
“My Plan A was to be a psychologist. I thought I would be a receptionist. I'm always middle of the road and very normal. I've always wanted a normal life, and this is what I got.” Would BeWantedPlansMiddleNormalPsychologistNormal LifeMiddle Of The RoadReceptionists Author:Gabourey Sidibe
“I had invited 50 or 60 peers and friends, most of whom were parents, to see the film [Trust], and I asked about the last scene. It was interesting because it was split right down the middle, 50/50. About half the audience wanted it to end with the very emotional scene between Clive and Liana, and that feeling of realization and catharsis. And, the other half were adamant about keeping that last scene.” EndsFeelingsWantedLastsFilmParentInterestingHalfAudienceMiddleEmotionalSceneRealizationSplitsPeersInvitedOther HalfCatharsisAdamant Author:David Schwimmer
“Mom did not want me to have anything to do with playing music. Being from a middle-class Black family in that particular era, everybody wanted you to have a profession -- a doctor, a lawyer, and so forth. So she sent me to school to study medicine.” WantWantedSchoolBlackClassGrowing UpStudyMiddleParticularMomMusic IsDoctorsMedicineProfessionLawyerErasMiddle ClassWant MePlaying MusicBlack Family Author:Don Alias
“What's always struck me is how different the sensory, especially auditory, experience is when you're in the middle of the music with the musicians playing off each other around you. I wanted to find a way to unlock the intensity of that, to recreate that unique perspective, first for the hundreds of people who attended the concert, and eventually for a much larger online audience.” PeopleWayFirstsDifferentWantedAudienceMiddlePerspectiveMusicianUniqueOnlineConcertsIntensitySensoryAuditoryUnique Perspective Author:Chris Milk
“As I've submerged myself in news of the revolutions sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, I wanted desperately to feel part of what was going on. And then it hit me: This is what white people were doing to me after Obama was elected!” PeopleFeelsWantedWhiteMiddleRevolutionNewsEastMiddle EastSweepingSubmergedNorth Africa Author:Baratunde Thurston
“I wanted to make pictures that contradicted themselves. I wanted to put one picture on top of another so that there were times when both pictures disappear and other times when they were both manifest. That vibration is basically what the work was about for me - that space in the middle where there is no picture, rather an emptiness, an oblivion.” WantedSpaceMiddleDisappearEmptinessManifestOblivionVibrations Author:Sherrie Levine
“I just wanted to be an ordinary, middle-class person. When I was at Cambridge I made great efforts to lose the last remnants of my cockney accent.” PersonsMadeWantedLastsLosesEffortClassMiddleOrdinaryMiddle ClassAccentsCambridgeRemnantsGreat EffortCockneys Author:Peter Ackroyd
“I grew up in a middle class household with parents, went to good schools, and never feared for anything, never wanted for anything that was really important. For all of us living in this world, all of us who have the resources, for us to not dedicate ourselves to giving something back, is to leave the world a lesser place.” WorldGivingImportantWantedSchoolParentClassMiddleThis WorldGrewGrew UpResourcesMiddle ClassHouseholdNever FearGood School Author:Annie Lennox
“Not so much that I wanted to give up rock writing, but I also wanted to try something new. So I moved to a crumbling stately heap on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere in southwest France, about 60 miles from Bordeaux: wine instead of cocaine.” GivingWritingTryingWantedMiddleRocksGiving UpMovedWineMilesHillsFranceSomething NewCocaineCrumblingMiddle Of NowhereBordeaux Author:Sylvie Simmons
“Americans are curious about the texture of everyday life in the Middle East because they rarely get to see it. I wanted readers to feel like they were sitting around the dinner table with me and my friends, hearing what average people really say and really think, [where] the dinner table is the best place to find out.” PeopleThinkingFeelsWantedMiddleReaderSittingMy FriendsTablesEverydayAverageHearingDinnerEastCuriousMiddle EastEveryday LifeTextureSitting AroundBest PlaceDinner Table Author:Annia Ciezadlo
“I think what I wanted to do was meet someone who knew more than me about songwriting structure and progressions and middle eights and things that more traditional writers write and I don't usually employ.” ThinkingWritingWantedMiddleStructureTraditionalSongwritingProgression Author:Bat for Lashes
“I knew I wanted to play around with genre-esque imagery, and the identity theft stuff came in the middle, when I was figuring out how the characters were connected to those images.” PlayCharacterWantedStuffMiddleIdentityConnectedGenreImageryTheftIdentity Theft Author:Dan Chaon