My main point about films is that I don't like the adaptation process, and I particularly don't like the modern way of comic book-film adaptations, where, essentially, the central characters are just franchises that can be worked endlessly to no apparent point.

Alan Moore

The United States is the ultimate land of optimistic promise, but it also gave birth to quintessentially pessimistic tragedy: 'Moby-Dick.'

A. N. Wilson

Essentially, it is the director who is the creative head of a film. The final authority on all decisions lies with the director. That is how it should be. And then other team members can give their creative inputs.

Aamir Khan

Biochemistry is the science of life. All our life processes - walking, talking, moving, feeding - are essentially chemical reactions. So biochemistry is actually the chemistry of life, and it's supremely interesting.

Aaron Ciechanover

The Obama administration has issued numerous orders essentially suspending deportations, prompting a major spike in illegal crossings.

Aaron Klein

We have, essentially, a worthless democracy.

Aaron McGruder

The show is '12 Monkeys,' and I'm playing the role that Bruce Willis played in the original film '12 Monkeys.' It is a show about time travel. My character is from a future post-apocalypse, and he has been given a mission to go back in time to essentially set things right and stop the apocalypse. No big deal.

Aaron Stanford

For my parents' generation, the idea was not that marriage was about some kind of idealized, romantic love; it was a partnership. It's about creating family; it's about creating offspring. Indian culture is essentially much more of a 'we' culture. It's a communal culture where you do what's best for the community - you procreate.

Aasif Mandvi

It's not that I don't want to do different films. The non-mainstream stuff that I did started to get successful... But for an industry which runs essentially on money, they do put you in a box.

Abhay Deol

The poverty line in the U.S., for example, has nothing to do with the poverty line in India. It is a relative poverty line. It is reset from time to time but it is related to U.S. median income, so if I set that to be the absolute poverty line everyone in India would essentially be poor.

Abhijit Banerjee

My parents' divorce was very difficult. Divorce is essentially incredibly painful, but it's also an essential part of life.

Abi Morgan

We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.

Abraham Lincoln

A smart phone essentially creates a dossier of your travels, and consumers have no control over who will eventually see that information.

Adam Cohen

Jeff Garlin is essentially my dad.

Adam F. Goldberg

The act of song writing and recording became one and the same to me; because I essentially recorded everything I did from the day I began trying to write songs. I've always had a lot to say. I'd always written poems.

Adam Goldberg

I started playing music when I was about six and didn't discover Indian classical music until I was fifteen. So, essentially, I had a lot of catching up to do.

Adnan Sami

I know so many people that were really able to lead 'perfect' lives. They meet the right person, they make the babies, they get the jobs, they get the house and it's essentially a smooth ride. That really didn't happen for me.

Aesop Rock

In two years, there were 22 military coups d'etat, essentially in Africa and the third world. The coup d'etat of Algiers, in 1965, is what opened the path.

Ahmed Ben Bella

'You're Ugly Too' isn't a comedy, but it has a lightness of touch with a hard edge. But it's essentially a warm story tinged with a bit of melancholy in the great Irish tradition. I'm very proud of that film.

Aidan Gillen

And I was the only black kid in my school for almost all of my childhood, until I was a teenager. So imagine, if you will, being 6 feet tall by third grade, so essentially being a living maypole.

Aisha Tyler

Acting is a learning process. And what you are doing in your early films is essentially picking up the nuances, the tricks of your trade. And somewhere along the line, you become analytical and learn to enjoy what you are doing.

Ajith Kumar