“Once an interesting idea or theme occurs to me then I would want to write a poem about it. The rest, frankly, is not difficult.” WantWritingIdeasDifficultInterestingThemeInteresting Ideas Author:Ama Ata Aidoo
“[Regarding] the soul, I'm a little wary of any discourse on that topic that pretends to have an answer, so I tend to keep my musings to myself. There is interesting, legitimate metaphysical work on the topic going at least as far back as Leibniz and continuing today, following the theme that consciousness, or at least computation, might be at least as fundamental as phenomena such as space, time, energy, and matter, which are the usual subject matter of physics. I follow that sort of thing with interest but with very modest expectations that answers will be arrived at during my lifetime.” LittlesSoulMatterMightTodayEnergyInterestSpaceAnswersInterestingConsciousnessSubjectsExpectationsFundamentalsLifetimeFollowingPhysicsThemeUsualContinuingModestDiscourseTopicsMetaphysicalSubject MatterMusingsSpace TimeComputation Author:Neal Stephenson
“This year's [2016] White House holiday theme is "The Gift of the Holidays," and our decorations reflect some of our greatest gifts as a nation: from our incredible military families, to the life-changing impact of a great education.” YearsHouseNationsWhiteMilitaryImpactIncrediblesLife ChangingThemeHolidayWhite HouseGreatest GiftsDecorationGreat EducationMilitary Family Author:Michelle Obama
“Ironically, my rabbi was a bar mitzvah Nazi. So I got bar mitzvahed. And though I didn't want to, the theme of my bar mitzvah party was Madonna.” WantPartyBarsThemeNaziRabbiBar MitzvahMitzvah Author:Billy Eichner
“I really don't teach the way Professor [Frank Moore] Cross does. I don't teach the text the same way he does. I teach Biblical themes, Biblical events.” WayDoeTeachEventsCrossesThemeProfessorsFrankBiblical Author:Elie Wiesel
“[Sacrifice of Isaac] is a major theme of the so-called Elohist [one authorial strand in the Pentateuch]. It is marked by all of his linguistic characteristics, and so on. We cannot determine what is historical and what isn't. As literary critics, we would understand the importance of this for understanding life, destiny. But the historical question must be left with a question mark.” LeftUnderstandingDestinySacrificeMajorsImportanceMarkHistoricalCriticsDetermineCharacteristicsThemeStrandsIsaacQuestion MarkUnderstanding LifeLife Destiny Author:Frank Moore Cross
“From Ennio [Morricone] I ask for themes that clothe my characters easily. He's never read a script of mine to compose the music, because many times he's composed the music before the script is ever written.” CharacterAsksWrittenMinesMusic IsScriptsTheme Author:Sergio Leone
“What I do is give Ennio Morricone suggestions and describe to him my characters, and then, quite often, he'll possibly write five themes for one character. And five themes for another. And then I'll take one piece of one of them and put it with a piece of another one for that character or take another theme from another character and move it into this character.... And when I have my characters finally dressed, then he composes.” GivingWritingCharacterMovingFivePiecesThemeSuggestionsOne Piece Author:Sergio Leone
“I'm looking back to a period of my life when I was badly hurt and then looking at another time when I felt I had things going for me again, so I suppose there is a theme [of the Faith album].” FeltHurtPeriodsAlbumsThemeLooking BackAnother Time Author:George Michael
“A lot of people felt that I was just tying that into the "I Want Your Sex" theme because of the AIDS thing and the prospect of the song's being banned. I thought it was a relevant point to make because of the AIDS thing. I wanted to write a song which sounded dirty but which was applicable to someone that I really cared about. That was my point.” PeopleWantWritingWantedSongSexFeltAidsDirtyThemeRelevantI Want YouBanned Author:George Michael
“In the Air Force, I had an old Wilcox Gay recorder, and I used to hear guitar runs on that recorder going (vocalizing) like the chords on "I Walk The Line." And I always wanted to write a love song using that theme, that tune.” WritingRunningWantedUsedSongForceLinesWalksAirGayGuitarThemeTunesChordsAir ForceRecorders Author:Johnny Cash
“I think the universal theme would be love and relationships and how if you really want to live and be alive that that's proven through the amount of love you give and receive.” IfsThinkingWantGivingWould BeAliveLove YouAmountUniversalThemeProvenGiving And ReceivingLove And RelationshipUniversal Themes Author:Boti Bliss
“I like different shoes with different themes for different reasons.” DifferentReasonShoesTheme Author:Fabolous
“As we [with Edward Herman] discuss there [in Manufacturing Consent] and elsewhere, recognition of the importance of "manufacturing consent" has become an ever more central theme in the more free societies.” ImportanceRecognitionThemeElsewhereConsentManufacturingFree Society Author:Noam Chomsky
“It would be a mistake to overstate the similarities between the Brexit vote and Trump's win - but there are common themes, not least in the rallying cries that the winning campaigns used. They focused on a supposed economic threat posed by outsiders, as immigrants or as trade partners. This fuelling of anxieties underpinned a narrative centered on the need to "regain control," whether of borders or of economic forces.” NeedsWould BeUsedWinningForceCommonMistakeEconomicCryTrumpAnxietyVoteTradeThreatFocusedPartnersCampaignsNarrativeBordersThemeImmigrantsOutsidersSimilarityRallyingRallying Cry Author:Mariana Mazzucato
“The main idea of it was to multiply everything, to have a bigger sound and grow venue size and grow fan base. As for a lyrical theme of the album [named "X"], it's just diary entries; it's just kind of like three years of my life in songs.” YearsKindIdeasSongThreeGrowsSoundFansBiggerSizeAlbumsThemeThree YearsDiariesEntryLyricalVenuesDiary Entries Author:Ed Sheeran
“What usually happens is that when I'm nearing the end of one novel a vague idea about what I want to do next begins to present itself to me in terms of theme. And I would say over about the next six to eight months, usually as I'm out power walking in the morning, or when I'm cooking at night, or when I'm driving in the car, the people who might embody those themes take on a sharper and sharper focus. And there comes this sort of critical mass moment when they actually start to do things in my head.” PeopleWantIdeasEndsMomentsMightHappensNightNextTermMorningNovelFocusCarMonthsWalkingSixMassCookingEightCriticalDrivingThemeVagueCritical MassVague Ideas Author:Anna Quindlen
“I saw this trend happening with the proliferation of guitar clinics and schools. And I was approached to do a camp in the past, but I wanted to have a good enough idea because most of them are just about jamming and learning. I decided I wanted a theme for each camp.” IdeasEnoughWantedSchoolPastSawsHappeningsDecidedGuitarThemeGood EnoughTrendsCampsProliferationClinic Author:Steve Vai
“The great thing about really heightened historical dramas is that they can convey much larger themes.” DramaHistoricalGreat ThingsTheme Author:Cynthia Addai-Robinson
“Horror films and genre films are interesting, because I always look for a deeper meaning or a deeper theme in the film.” LooksFilmInterestingHorrorDeeperGenreThemeHorror FilmDeeper Meaning Author:Katee Sackhoff
“Mickalene [Thomas] is an artist that I have admired for a long time. So much of her work inspires me - I spend time looking at her work when I'm writing. I feel like we're working toward the same themes, and I see our work in conversation, whether we know it or not.” KnowsFeelsWritingLongArtistInspireConversationLong TimeThemeEnd TimesSpend Time Author:Morgan Parker
“Investing in innovation, which was my broad theme talking to [Warren Buffett ], that included health vaccines, it included energy and education.” EnergyTalkingInnovationInvestingThemeBroadsVaccinesBuffettWarren Buffet Author:Bill Gates
“The music in the movie [Everybody Loves Somebody] is very much hand-picked specifically because it's our history and our traditions. The themes are universal.” HandsTraditionUniversalTheme Author:Karla Souza
“Every novel starts with a theme, and I am constantly looking for big ideas.” IdeasBigsNovelThemeBig Ideas Author:Peter James
“I checked the emails the same theme that I could summarize them. "Rush, whatever you're talking about here - [Donald] Trump, you talk about the Republicans, [Barack] Obama and so forth - nothing's gonna change with the media the way it is. And all of it is academic, Rush. You know it".” KnowsWayTalkingMediaTrumpRepublicanBarackThemeAcademicEmail Author:Rush Limbaugh
“It is hard for me to speak of themes. I like the reader to do that. Otherwise it feels like writing a 3rd grade essay on someone else's work.” FeelsWritingHardSpeakReaderThemeGradesEssays Author:Tim Winton
“I never start with what lots of people think of as a subject or a theme. They're school words, not art words. So, writing essays busts my arse because the art is in addressing the subject. I find it really difficult and monstrously time-consuming. In an essay I need to employ my imagination but it's indentured in a way it's not when I'm free to make everything up.” PeopleThinkingWayNeedsWritingArtSchoolDifficultImaginationSubjectsArt IsThemeEssaysMy ImaginationConsumingArsesTime ConsumingWriting Essays Author:Tim Winton
“I think we all have a certain number of "coming of age" songs, and then a writer has to expand and grow into more varied and specific themes. And the music industry is, like Jawbreaker says, "selling kids to other kids," so it makes sense that those early songs in a writer's life are often the ones that catch people's ears, and later work is more difficult and less immediate.” PeopleThinkingKidsAgeCertainSongGrowsDifficultNumbersIndustryEarsSellingMake SenseThemeComing Of AgeMusic Industry Author:John K. Samson
“I don't think that the universal themes of love, compassion, and forgiveness (are present). (You're) searching constantly for the next step, the next level and consciousness in your spirituality, who you are as a human being and what you contribute to society or what God means to you is always a course everyone goes on.” ThinkingHumansMeanSpiritualityCoursesNextHuman BeingsLevelsConsciousnessCompassionStepsGoes OnUniversalWho You AreThemeNext StepsNext LevelUniversal Themes Author:Tim McGraw
“For not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine. Had he learned by rules of art, he would have known how to speak not of one theme only, but of all; and therefore God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us.” KnowsMindMayDoeArtStatesUseOrderSpeakKnownDivinePoetHolyMinistersProphetThemeSpeakersPricelessUnconsciousnessHoly Prophet Author:Plato
“But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know; - that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.” IfsThinkingKnowsShouldHas BeensUseFightingKnowingReadyOughtShould HaveSeekingDeedsFancyThemeHelplessIdleShould Have Been Author:Plato
“The form is always integral to the expression of the theme or to the sheer telling of the story, and sometimes the right form is apparent to me from the outset and sometimes it isn't.” SometimesStoriesFormExpressionThemeSheer Author:Steve Erickson
“It was exciting to work with director Jennifer Baichwal, who made Manufactured Landscapes and others, on the film of Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. It's called, simply, PAYBACK. Jennifer didn't want to do a transliteration of the book, a kind of illustrated version, but to go into the core of the book: owing and being owed, paying and paying back, on all sorts of levels. So she found real-life, visceral stories that embodied the themes of the book.” WantKindMadeBookRealStoriesFilmFoundSidesWealthLevelsDirectorsShadowExcitingDebtCoreReal LifeVersionsLandscapeThemeOwingJenniferVisceralPaybackShadow Side Author:Margaret Atwood
“My role - and that is too emphatic a word - is to show people that they are much freer than they feel, that people accept as truth, as evidence, some themes which have been built up at a certain moment during history, and that this so-called evidence can be criticized and destroyed.” PeopleFeelsHas BeensMomentsShowsCertainAcceptingRolesEvidenceBuiltDestroyedTheme Author:Michel Foucault
“Despite the variety my books reflect my, perhaps foolish, tendency to place artistic above financial concerns; of enjoying the more mature themes in whatever creative form; of being on a mission to show that comics are not just for kids; and on a wider level of standing up for individuality against conformity.” BookShowsKidsFormEnjoyLevelsCreativeConcernStandingFinancialIndividualityMissionsFoolishTendenciesDespiteVarietyArtisticThemeMatureConformity Author:Sean Michael Wilson
“Being an older person now, I'm finding that people are calling me to play various things. Variations on the theme of mother, caretaker, and in some cases, doctors, heads of organizations and things like that. For some people, I'm finally old enough to play those roles. We see men playing them when they're a little bit younger, and also in roles that call for some form of conflict and violence, either generating it or trying to curtail it. Women don't seem to be a big part of those common and often used movie themes.” PeopleMenTryingLittlesPersonsEnoughPlayBigsSeemsFormUsedMotherBitsCommonRolesCasesViolenceCallingConflictFindingsLittle BitDoctorsOrganizationVariousThemeVariationCaretakers Author:Barbara Crampton
“Just because I don't sing about the normal country themes doesn't mean my songs aren't country. I'd rather sing about having fun.” MeanCountrySongFunNormalHaving FunTheme Author:Kenny Chesney
“One big theme for me is that we have got to move from an economy built on debt to one where we save and invest in the future.” BigsMovingEconomyBuiltDebtTheme Author:George Osborne
“I started as a community organizer. Every one of my campaigns was premised on getting new people involved. And if there's a theme in my public career it's that if ordinary people get involved then good things happen. So I want to see the Democratic Party move in that direction. And what that means is that we aren't just micro-targeting to eke out presidential victories; it means that we're showing up in places where right now we're not winning a lot.” PeopleIfsWantMeanHappensMovingWinningCommunityPartyCareersVictoryInvolvedRight NowOrdinaryGood ThingsDemocraticCampaignsThings HappenPresidentialThemeOrdinary PeopleGet InvolvedDemocratic PartyShowing UpOrganizer Author:Barack Obama
“The two teachers that I had in the Art Institute who affected me the most were Kathleen Blackshear and Robert von Neumann; Kathleen Blackshear because she taught a class called design - I can't remember, design something, and in this class - it met once a week - we would do work centered around some theme, word or subject or technique or whatever, and bring it in for a three-hour discussion. And Kathleen was able, in watching and looking at our work, to direct us to all kinds of things which might relate to what we were trying to do, but she never attempted to tell us what to do.” TryingKindArtI CanTwoMightAbleRememberThreeHoursClassTeacherWeekSubjectsDesignTaughtMetsDirectTechniqueAll KindsRelateDiscussionThemeAffectedInstituteVon Neumann Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I first wrote down all the phenomena that have emerged in contemporary society that I thought were related to this theme ["sea of oblivion"], and then sorted them out by grouping them into islands of ideas.” FirstsIdeasSeaContemporaryIslandsRelatedThemeOblivionContemporary Society Author:Yasumasa Morimura
“This is why there is not any artist who takes Internet as the theme. My position is quite the opposite to the current trend of art, but this is exactly why the title of my exhibition is "ART Fahrenheit 451".” ArtArtistPositionInternetOppositesCurrentsTitlesThemeTrendsExhibitions Author:Yasumasa Morimura
“A novel must work as a story because no one's going to get to the other themes if you don't entertain the reader. But I like to have another layer of meaning, although you can read the book on one level and not bother with that other layer.” IfsBookStoriesLevelsNovelReaderBotherThemeLayers Author:Robert Cormier
“Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart.” HeartStoriesDifficultDarkReaderRedemptionThemeTake MeOptimistHappy Endings Author:Michael Morpurgo
“There's probably more of a struggle to get material and narratives published that really speak to black culture. And that has a lot to do with the mergers and buyouts and the corporations being more in control of the purse strings. We find that the projects have to come with higher expectations rather than books that just should be published. That's disturbing because we might find fewer and fewer children's books by African Americans or with black cultural themes.” ShouldChildrenBookMightCultureSpeakBlackStruggleMaterialsHigherProjectsExpectationsAfrican AmericanNarrativeCorporationsThemeStringsFewerDisturbingPursesChildren's BooksMergersBlack Culture Author:Jerry Pinkney
“We all get betrayed or we all betray. Life is so complex that it's almost impossible to avoid that. Betrayal is also a critical theme in all the world's great stories. If Christ had not been betrayed, would you have had the resurrection?” IfsWorldStoriesLife IsChristImpossibleComplexesBetrayalCriticalThemeBetrayResurrectionBetrayed Author:Jean Houston
“By the way of connecting with subject, with theme, I was able to find a kind of lifeline. Writing's like a lifeline. You have to get the right way in. Otherwise the material just lies there, and you can't do anything with it.” WayWritingKindAbleLyingSubjectsMaterialsThemeRight WayConnectingLifelines Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“I find it incredibly boring when people are mean about some individuals, especially if the individual has no power. I can understand how someone deems it necessary if somebody is in power to tear them down - I think that's really crucial. I make a lot of mean jokes about myself; as a theme, suffering seems to me a very interesting thing for comedy, but not the suffering of a particular individual.” PeopleIfsThinkingMeanI CanSeemsSufferingIndividualInterestingComedyTearsParticularJokesBoringThemeCrucialVery InterestingInteresting Things Author:Dylan Moran
“The first theme that every audience can get easily everywhere in the world is the theme of judgment. You are constantly judging if this character is doing something wrong or right, or the other character is doing something right or wrong.” IfsWorldFirstsCharacterAudienceJudgingJudgmentThemeWrong Or Right Author:Asghar Farhadi
“Blackness is an ocean, a universe, a possibility that can never be exhausted. And so we have to constantly reaffirm the necessity of excavation, of archiving and curating, but also exploring, and understanding afresh and learning for the first time what it is that we need to know, and what the limits and boundaries are, and what the themes and preoccupations should be, and what the redemptive character of that erudition is. I find myself in the exciting position of doing all that, and at the same time having the obligation to explain to white people what the deal is.” PeopleKnowsNeedsShouldFirstsCharacterUniverseUnderstandingWhiteDealsPossibilityPositionLimitsOceanFirst TimeExcitingBoundariesObligationThemeExploringExhaustedBlacknessPreoccupationErudition Author:Michael Eric Dyson