Most period drama is so earnest. A lot of it is about making yourself take seriously things you wouldn't normally.
I've learned over a period of years there are setbacks when you come up against the immovable object; sometimes the object doesn't move.
A spiritual 'spurter' is one who is given to short bursts of spectacular effort followed by frequent and lengthy periods of rest.
I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness.
I go through periods of not writing. Until there's something I can't find in the world that I need, so I write.
'Oscar Wao' for example cohered in a period of terrible distress. All the novels that I wanted to write were not happening.
It was really a very small company when I started and it changed very rapidly during those first periods.
Throughout the nineteen-seventies and eighties, especially during periods of recession, employees were moved from offices to cubicles.
When people are entering a high-stress period, they don't sleep and don't exercise, but in fact, it should be just the opposite.
From an evolutionary perspective children are, literally, designed to learn. Childhood is a special period of protected immaturity. It gives the young breathing time to master the things they will need to know in order to survive as adults.
I'm convinced that the man who has learned to meditate upon the Lord will be able to run on his feet and walk in his spirit. Although he may be hurried by his vocation, that's not the issue. The issue is how fast his spirit is going. To slow it down ...
And then the last album, 'Get It', was done over a shorter period of time and I started using other musicians, as opposed to playing all the instruments myself like I did on the other two.
In comedy, looking back is more important than looking around at your contemporaries because they are too much influenced by the same time period as you are.
Each organism, no matter how simple or complex, has around it a sacred bubble of space, a bit of mobile territoriality which only a few other organisms are allowed to penetrate and then only for short periods of time.
We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I'm going to be alive, I want to be challenged - to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn't an easy way, but it's a rewarding way.
I'm not a religious person but I do like the idea of Sunday as a day set apart from the rest of the week. It's nice to have a period of reflection and have time to think about things.
One aspect of this is the way we have come during recent centuries to appreciate that the world and indeed the very universe in which we live have evolved over immense periods of time.
In terms of the pilot, you have to introduce a lot of characters in a very short period of time, and you have to paint with slightly broad brush strokes because you just need to give an audience an idea of who these people might be.
The human race needs a time out from all this techno-magic-mischief, a period to reflect on what we've done and how we ought to behave with this stuff.
Moral persuasion over a period of time makes a difference, but we shouldn't be naive to think that just because we raise it in a meeting it will make all those problems go away. It won't and it doesn't.
I would suspect strongly that over a period of time, if we put our mind to going to Mars, it will be a consortium of several countries.
