Some people read an interesting or provocative newspaper article, and that's the end of that. A writer reads such an article, and her imagination gets fired up. Questions occur to her. She might feel an urge to finish the story that the article suggests.

Elizabeth Berg

I like films that are edgy, provocative, non-formula and original.

Abhay Deol

I'm more comfortable watching 'Dev D' with my mom than a film that makes a woman an object whose only purpose is to dance provocatively.

Abhay Deol

Written poetry is different. Best thing is to see it in performance first, then read it. Performance is more provocative.

Adrian Mitchell

Over the past years, I have lectured many times on the Cuban missile crisis, most provocatively to 200 senior officers of the former Soviet army in Moscow in 1991, among them KGB generals. There, my knowledge of Penkovsky's role was thoroughly confirmed, and so was the Soviet military men's residual sense of humiliation at Khrushchev's 'blink'.

Alistair Horne

I don't understand how some of these young actresses are wearing such provocative, editorial items, when they haven't even established a career yet. It's hard to see past that. I'm not so sure that's smart in the long run.

Allison Williams

Quite a lot has been written, including by me, about the effect of social media on politics, and in particular the way in which the algorithms built into Facebook and YouTube are more likely to spread angry, extremist and deliberately provocative political language.

Anne Applebaum

When I started out playing small clubs, you could feel the room recoil from certain kinds of songs. Anything that was too personal, that had a sentiment to it, or was laying out your feelings, was immediately booed. People would start throwing things. And anything that was really provocative or humorous or radical was embraced or cheered.

Beck

You speak to the press at the Tour every day, but most often in a negative sense. Ninety per cent of the questions you are asked in the post-race press conferences are challenging or provocative, so you have to justify yourself; you have to try to give the right answers about every topic across the board.

Bradley Wiggins

Shows in the '70s and '80s were a lot more provocative. Shows that are coming out now - like 'Black-Ish,' 'The Carmichael Show' - are showcasing people of color in a new way. It's not stereotypical.

Bresha Webb

The less lines, the better. I am the silent film actor, but not in a slapstick sort of way. Film is an image-based medium, so whatever you can say without the words is far more provocative and punctuating. If the lines are not funny or if they don't advance the story, sometimes it's hard. I hate talk in movies.

Callum Keith Rennie

To really be tortured by a song, it needs to be more than just something you don't like or don't get; it has to make your skin crawl by getting under it. Strangely, that last clause could describe provocative or daring music, as well.

Carrie Brownstein

It has been very erotic and provocative for people to wonder about my feelings for women.

Catherine Deneuve

I went through a phase where I dressed a bit provocatively when I was a teenager and I don't think my mum was too thrilled. But my dad held the line of, 'Well she will grow out of it' and I did.

Chloe Madeley

I don't have any interest in filmmakers making statements just for the sake of being provocative.

Chris Pine

I think that as I continue to write, my writing I hope will become more controversial and more provocative.

Christopher Darden

I'm in awe of the universe, but I don't necessarily believe there's an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.

David Bowie

It is true that I am often startled and even angered and repulsed by the strange directions and provocative content of new forms that seem to pop up every few months.

David Rockefeller

I don't think Fox News or Rush Limbaugh need Clinton it turns out. I think there's a hunger out there for - whether it's on the left or right - a more lively and provocative type of political journalism. I think Salon and Fox on the other side have both benefited from that.

David Talbot

The reason why everything I do is so different is not because I'm trying to be provocative; it's simply a reflection of whatever was happening to me at the time I wrote that particular record.

Devin Townsend

I was born in 1949, and by the time I was 10, I figured out that my hope chest was not aimed in the same direction everybody else's was. And that life was going to be very, very complicated. And that I could either be provocative and declamatory, or shy, retiring and scared.

Dorothy Allison