I'm like a middle-aged person; when my friends go on about modern bands, I don't know what they are talking about. I'm into rock n' roll, like Jimi Hendrix. Not so much because of my parents, who used to play a lot of Nina Simone and older blues, but...
Fantasy is more than an escape from the truths of the world and the past: it is an open acknowledgment that those truths are complex and morally difficult. It offers a different route to creating something which will resonate with readers, in a way w...
One of the ironies of college is that the impossibility of reading your way out of the modern predicament is something you learn about, as a student, by reading. Part of the value of a humanistic education has to do with a consciousness of, and a fam...
I can't blame modern technology for my predilection for distraction, not after all the hours I've spent watching lost balloons disappear into the clouds. I did it before the Internet, and I'll do it after the apocalypse, assuming we still have helium...
Clearly, there are many places where diesel is king or gas-turbine is king, or IC engines will win, but there are many places in the world where, as we've seen, they just won't do the job. The modern version of the Stirling engine has some very, very...
The shock of the way I mix patterns and fabrics can be disconcerting, but what I am trying to do is provoke new ideas about how pieces can be put together in different ways. I think this is a more modern way to wear clothes that in themselves are fai...
The way Alvin Ailey has transformed modern dance and dance in general is the fact of variety. It's a cornucopia of ways to move. There are choreographers in the company as - as diverse, as different from each other as Donald McKayle and Bill T. Jones...
Seaman Jones: COB, we don't have time for sea stories. I was just teaching Seaman Beaumont, here, the intracacies of modern sonar, now... Watson: [chuckling] Yea, and I ain't Chief Of the Boat, I'm actually Sheena, queen of the jungle!
Arms Fair Salesman: Sir! Sir, may I interest you in the shoulder fired S-37 surface-to-air missle? It's the old Chinese model. Not so effective against modern military aircraft but deadly if used against a commerical airliner.
Sergeant Howie: And what of the TRUE God? Whose glory, churches and monasteries have been built on these islands for generations past? Now sir, what of him? Lord Summerisle: He's dead. Can't complain, had his chance and in modern parlance, blew it.
Non-human primates spend hours a day grooming each other. And with humans, touching is also important. It's a way to form bonds and connect in modern society. But you can also speed up the use of conscious purposes once you're aware of that, and it c...
The notions of going to work, putting in set hours, and getting 'face time' are increasingly antiquated ideas. Because of technology we have entered a modern era of work where we can work from wherever we want, whenever we want and we can be more pro...
I guess, for me, what started me getting real excited about music was the New York punk and new-wave scene. All those bands looked back to the Velvet Underground and the Stooges and the Modern Lovers as well. But that was back when Television were pu...
Ben Fong-Torres: There's a mojo at the "Daily News" they'll let us use. William Miller: A "mojo"? Ben Fong-Torres: A mojo. It's a very modern machine that transmits pages over the telephone. It only takes 18 minutes a page.
I'm doing something called 'Olivia Twisted,' that will start next year. There may be something in between, but right now, that's the one that I'm slated to do next year. That's a very ultra-modern version of 'Oliver Twist,' and it's female-driven. It...
Well, it's a badge of honour for any self-respecting poet to be criticized by Auberon Waugh. But in a lot of ways my poems are very conventional, and it's no big deal for me to write a poem in either free verse or strict form; modern poets can, and d...
WhatsApp provides phone-number-based messaging, and people asked, 'Isn't that what SMS is?' Yes, but SMS is expensive, antiquated, and what WhatsApp did was modernize and level that playing field. For example, in Europe, if France wants to talk to Be...
Individuals are prey to institutions in modern mass societies... Individuals can struggle mightily against institutionalized conditions, but without changing the institutions themselves, those efforts will be largely for naught, since people tire, lo...
The problem with modern politics is everybody is doing sound bite stuff. In my stump speech, I give 20 minutes on why I think we're off track. And I think people do really want to engage in a serious high-level discussion on how to get the country ba...
In the midst of the complexities of modern life, with all its pressures, the spirit of man needs to refresh itself by communion with unspoiled nature. In such surroundings- occasional as our visits may be- we can achieve that kind of physical and spi...
MacKenzie grinned at Mim. "They love the modern appliances." "Especially the electric floor sweeper," Valor chuckled. "Defiance really has a thing for the vacuum cleaner," MacKenzie agreed in a secretive whisper. "If he ever has kids, he'll probably ...
