A lot of people, I think, harbor some kind of ambition to write a novel - they say, 'One day I'm going to write a novel,' and they maybe find the first three pages quite easy, and then they hit a kind of brick wall, and they think that that brick wall means that they're not a writer.

Alex Garland

I don't know if English is the only language where some expressions only and solely mean the opposite of what they say but we do have an awful lot of them.

A. A. Gill

Age Where They Say

There's a very passionate pro-chewing movement on the Internet called Chewdiasm. They say that we should be chewing 50 to 100 times per mouthful, which is insane. I tried that. It takes like a day and a half to eat a sandwich. But their basic idea is right. If you chew, you'll eat slower and you will get more nutrients.

A. J. Jacobs

Time Men You

It's definitely tough on the pass rushers when they say you're taking a quarterback down and you fall on top of them and it's roughing the passer. Ain't really much you can say, it's just tough.

Aaron Donald

Art You Usher

They say an elephant never forgets. Well, you are not an elephant. Take notes, constantly. Save interesting thoughts, quotations, films, technologies... the medium doesn't matter, so long as it inspires you.

Aaron Koblin

You Well Tin

It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.

Abba Eban

Politics Experience Ways

I wanted to make good records. But my problem is I've got a low boredom threshold, so I wanted it to look and sound different with each album, which is really tantamount to suicide, cause people lose it, they lose it - they say: 'I like that, and that's not this.'

Adam Ant

Good Wit Which

I'm always looking, as an actor, for activities. I think it's far more interesting to watch what people do than what they say. You always want to watch behavior, because the dialogue as written by our illustrious leaders is great. Eminently playable.

Adam Baldwin

Great You Ya

In real life, I am emotionally confused, which enables me to write songs. I'm a Pisces, and they say that Pisces are very sensitive. If men were just honest with themselves, they would see that they all have that side.

Adam Levine

Men Life Write

I'd always been one of the strongest players in the game, but officially in 'Fifa 14' I was the strongest in the world. If they say so, I must be. I like that.

Adebayo Akinfenwa

World Ways Way

I always think the most important thing for a writer is a deadline, and it's the same with a house. They say you shouldn't make an emotional decision with a house, but I think it is the only decision you can make.

Adriana Trigiani

You Writer Write

There are certain things that they say you can't do, there are all these secret people behind the scenes who make things available for you to do. That's why you have so much crime and violence.

Afrika Bambaataa

You Why Who

Everything that has a spare piano is 'like Satie' and everything with strings is 'filmic,' Sometimes I get annoyed when they say my stuff sounds 'like Satie'. No, it doesn't. At least, I don't think so.

Agnes Obel

Time Wit Very

I am southern - from the great state of South Carolina. They say, 'You can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl.' And it's true.

Ainsley Earhardt

Great Car You

There was a stage in my career, especially with standup, where I felt, because I didn't know why I was doing well, that anyone who would tell me anything; I was sort of like, 'What did they say? Yeah, I'll take that advice.' Now I'm a bit more careful who I choose to listen to.

Aisling Bea

Car Age Yeah

There are people who do what they believe is right, but as they say, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.'

Aja Naomi King

Good Wit Who

What I try to get beyond is playing music at people and, instead, to play music with people because audience members are constantly part of the experience. What they say in their body language, what they say in their eyes, what they sing with me... it's an 'us,' and there's a communication that's like... it's like church, man.

Al Jarreau

Music Experience Communication

Eventually, when I sell enough units, as they say in the record business, I will stop touring. I'll concentrate on what I like to do... stay in the studio.

Al Jourgensen

Business Will Vent

They say anything can happen in a short series. I just didn't expect it to be that short.

Al Lopez

Us Thing Thin

Los Angeles is not a town full of airheads. There's a great deal of wonderful energy there. They say 'yes' to things; not like the endless 'nos' and 'hrrumphs' you get in England!

Alan Rickman

Great You Yes

They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

Alan Shepard

Space Good You

I don't understand when people are being greedy or mean, when they say who should get what, when they get control of someone else's life.

Alek Wek

I'm a good actor in that sense for directors because I always do what they say.

Alex Cox

A lot of people, I think, harbor some kind of ambition to write a novel - they say, 'One day I'm going to write a novel,' and they maybe find the first three pages quite easy, and then they hit a kind of brick wall, and they think that that brick wall means that they're not a writer.

Alex Garland

For sure, Potrero Chico is a super nice winter vacation climbing area. It's really convenient to fly into Monterrey, one of the nicer cities in Mex, and get a taxi to Potero. Then you can just live in the camping area and walk everywhere. It's muy tranquilo, as they say there.

Alex Honnold

Fans are allowed to have their own opinion, at the end of the day they can say whatever they want, but some of them, it's crazy. They just want their own team to win. I can understand that. But some of the things they say.

Alex Iwobi

They say you can do honest, sincere work for decades, but you're given in general a 10-year period when what you do touches the zeitgeist - when you're relevant. And I'm aware of that, and I don't want my time to go by.

Alexander Payne

There's a bizarre insistence on how a story should be. 'The protagonist must be sympathetic!' they say. Whatever that means. I never engage in that discussion. I never use that word, 'sympathetic.' I just know 'interesting.'

Alexander Payne

There's this false notion that you have to separate and choose between issues of class and issues of race. What people do when they say that you need to separate class from race is that they are really just saying that people of color should come second.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Americans have different ways of saying things. They say 'elevator', we say 'lift'... they say 'President', we say 'stupid psychopathic git.

Alexei Sayle

If you travel to the States... they have a lot of different words than like what we use. For instance: they say 'elevator', we say 'lift'; they say 'drapes', we say 'curtains'; they say 'president', we say 'seriously deranged git.'

Alexei Sayle

People and what they say don't bother me like they used to. When I was younger, I really couldn't take it because I couldn't understand where the criticism was coming from.

Allen Iverson

I don't need to be on any micro-blogging site, because people don't think about what they say there. At times, people abuse, and it is too harsh for me to handle.

Allu Arjun

You know how when people lose their grandma or grandpa, people they say they're sorry? They do mean it, but... there's nothing to say. There's a void that cannot be filled.

Amaury Nolasco

They say 15 million people are watching the show, but what does that mean, you know? It's not until I'm accosted on the street that I understand!

America Ferrera

I think that it's important that actors keep getting challenged every day. For every creative person, it's a terrible moment when they say they have done all they want to do.

Amitabh Bachchan

Young parents in America are holy and not to be messed with. If they say something is correct, we all acquiesce. And is there any man, woman or canine who doesn't leap out of the way when one of those giant, all-terrain Bugaboo strollers comes barreling down the sidewalk?

Amity Shlaes

Himanshu and I travel together whenever possible, but there are times when I like to travel with my mother and maasi. It is really shocking that trolls comment on that, too. They say 'Don't you get along with your mother-in-law that you don't take her along?' Now, who would accept such remarks about one's mother?

Amruta Khanvilkar

Keep your mouth shut and see what's happening around you. Don't finish people's sentences for them. Don't just hear what they say, but also how they behave while they're saying it. That was great training for writing.

Amy Bloom

A lot of parents today are terrified that something they say to their children might make them 'feel bad.' But, hey, if they've done something wrong, they should feel bad. Kids with a sense of responsibility, not entitlement, who know when to experience gratitude and humility, will be better at navigating the social shoals of college.

Amy Chua

That's the problem with bacterial meningitis: it progresses really fast. You think you have the flu, and they say within 15 hours it's severely deadly - for sure within the first 24 hours - but even the first 15 hours.

Amy Purdy

The thing that really sticks - and when you talk to entrepreneurs, they say the same - is just thinking about the next day, the next week.

Ana Patricia Botin

You have to treat every day as a new challenge, and you have to remain paranoid, as they say.

Anand Mahindra

The moment I say I'm going into scooters, they say, 'You're crazy.' Six months later, when BMW comes out with an electric scooter, it's fine. But when Anand does it, because he's some small guy in India, it's not fine.

Anand Mahindra

A lot of people body shame me because I am very thin. They say I have a 'boy's body,' or that I look like a skeleton or like a runaway patient. People can never be happy, so you just have to be happy with your body and how you are.

Ananya Panday

In America people get depressed for no reason. They say, 'I'm sad my boyfriend didn't call me.' I tell them, 'How would you like to spend 12 hours on a line to get bread or a chicken?' That is depressing.

Anastasia Soare

Actresses are defined more by the roles they say 'no' to it than the roles they say 'yes' to it.

Andrea Jeremiah

I had a mother who was very emotionally demanding, wanting to be the centre of attention. As they say in EastEnders, she thought it was all about 'er. I spent a lot of time trying to work out what was going on.

Andrew Davies

It seems like women don't want men to be men anymore. They want men to be women. But they really don't want what they say they want. It's very weird.

Andrew Dominik

They're strange, the Aussies. Because if they like you, they say, 'Oh, he's an Aussie.' And I keep saying, 'I'm not, I'm from Preston.' There's nothing Australian about me. Don't start claiming me just because I've got a job over here.

Andrew Flintoff

I had always been literary, in the sense of loving poetry and discovering novels, but I found my voice, as they say, in an office full of elderly people who looked after blind ex-servicemen.

Andrew O'Hagan