A critic is, essentially, a fan with an IQ; a critic has to be a fan, because nothing other than love can sustain critical enthusiasm over the course of years.

(Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle Movie Critic)

Were I some sleeping Adam, to wake and find you resting at my rib, to share these things that God has done, to walk you through the garden, to counsel your timid steps, your bewildered eye, your heart so slow to love, so careful to love, so sheepish that I stepped up my aim and became a man.

(Donald Miller, in “Polaroids”)

I would rather have a prostate exam on live TV operated on by a guy with cold hands than have a Facebook page.

(George Clooney, Schauspieler)

Love is handing your heart to someone and taking the risk that they will hand it back because they don’t want it. That’s why it’s such a crushing ache on the inside. We gave away a part of ourselves and it wasn’t wanted.

Love is a giving away of power. When we love, we give the other person the power in the relationship. They can do what they choose. They can do what they like with our love. They can reject it, they can accept it, they can step toward us in gratitude and appreciation.

Love is a giving away. When we love, we put ourselves out there, we expose ourselves, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

(Rob Bell)

Never expect a thank-you, and never do things for a thank-you. That is very liberating.

(Lou Dobbs, Journalist)

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

(Eleanor Roosevelt)

Characters in films are just as fake as characters in videogames. Neither exists. Why, despite the pivotal position emotional attachment has in game design, does film do so much better than we do? Are they better writers, or is there another challenge unique to our medium?

(Randy Smith, Spieldesigner, in EDGE 201)

Hiding isn’t working, and neither is whining. The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does.

(Seth Godin)

My experience with becoming an adult is, you come to this place where you see that you have this set of beliefs. And you run up against things that kind of defy that. You get into a situation where there isn’t one simple answer and all the arrogance, all the surety of youth is either thrown back at you or it’s at least ineffective. And then the world is thorny, and the world is fucked up and very hard to manage, and it’s impossible to know whether you did the right thing or the wrong thing. It’s about being disabused of this idea that there’s a stone-cold right and wrong.

(Ben Affleck in Esquire)

I’m not a fan of the F-18s. As musicians, you make your career out of preserving your ears. It’s all about hearing. And you just don’t want to be out in the middle of the field with F-18s going overhead. When you’re playing (the anthem), you can’t put your hands over your ears.

(Joe Satriani, Musiker)

I don’t possess an iPod. I’ve got music going on in my head all the time; I don’t need something stuck in my ear. I like silence, too. A lot of people these days are afraid of silence, but I live in Geneva and we have a chalet up in the French Alps and I spent three days up there before leaving for this [concert] tour. I hardly spoke to anyone. Real silence. It does your soul good.

(Petula Clark, Sängerin, im San Francisco Chronicle)

Ich habe auch ein generelles Problem mit Leuten, die stolz darauf sind, dass sie keine Zeitung lesen und sich nur noch online informieren – dabei sind doch Zeitungen notwendig, um an der Kultur und der Gesellschaft teilzuhaben. Allen Schülern und Studenten kann ich nur zurufen: Lest mehr Zeitung!

(Günther Jauch)

Happy people are not ambitious. They do not build civilizations.

(Susan Greenfield)

People who are creative are not mentally right to begin with.

(Richard Marx, Musiker und Produzent im San Francisco Chronicle)