When I went on to write my next book Working With Emotional Intelligence I wanted to make a business case that the best performers were those people strong in these skills.

If I could have been a marine biologist I would have but I didn't have that kind of intelligence. Numbers were never my strong point.

But once you are in that field emotional intelligence emerges as a much stronger predictor of who will be most successful because it is how we handle ourselves in our relationships that determines how well we do once we are in a given job.

If you are going to have to play defense all the time you cannot have the kind of ingenuity assertiveness independence and intelligence which is what has made our country strong.

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe and stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.

Nothing makes one feel so strong as a call for help.

Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world and bettered the tradition of mankind.

There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.

But there is so much more to do for the city we love... a Dallas with roads as strong as our businesses parks as beautiful as our children a downtown as tall as our imagination.

Even the highest forms of sacrificial worship present much that is repulsive to modern ideas and in particular it requires an effort to reconcile our imagination to the bloody ritual which is prominent in almost every religion which has a strong sense of sin.

Our imaginations are strong as children. Sometimes they get shoved aside these imaginations. They get dusty and mildewed with age. The imagination is a muscle that has to be put to use or it shrivels.

I think I'm an actor because I have very strong imagination and empathy. I never studied acting but those two qualities are exactly the qualities that make for an activist.

I'm an emotional sort of person in general and I have a vivid imagination so I feel the whole spectrum of emotion strongly when I write.

As an actor you have to have a strong vivid imagination as you're working and when the camera's rolling but there's certainly a part of you that is aware of real life that you're making a movie.

What really fascinates me is this need that is so strong now that if you read a work of the imagination you instantly have to say 'Oh what this really is is so-and-so ' reducing it to a simple formula.

I think films about men are often about characters who don't want to express their feelings. You're supposed to kind of admire them for not expressing their feelings. And I feel that's a bit dull. Women's stories often have stronger emotional content which I enjoy doing. What I really love doing is mixing that with humor.

There's something about Southern women that is so unique yet so universal. Strong southern women are allowed to be soft and feminine and have a sense of humor. But what I love about Southern women in particular is their universality.

I love a man with a great sense of humor and who is intelligent - a man who has a great smile. He has to make me laugh. I like a man who is very ambitious and driven and who has a good heart and makes me feel safe. I like a man who is very strong and independent and confident - that is very sexy - but at the same time he's very kind to people.

If the blood humor is too strong and robust calm it with balance and harmony.

I do sometimes strongly hope that in a past life my most recent life before this I was absolutely horrible evil hideous. Because otherwise - well hell to even things up next time around I'm going to have to pay for this one am I not?

Do you force your kids to pay attention to what's going on or do you let them live their lives outside of it? My hope is that my child is a strong activist. That would make me most proud.

A strong mind always hopes and has always cause to hope.

For President Obama 'home of the brave' are not just the last words of our national anthem but also a call to action. This is why the president's policies and our platform include incentives to train and hire our troops returning home. Not only because of our moral responsibility but because it makes for a stronger more secure American economy.

Take for example the African jungle the home of the cheetah. On whom does the cheetah prey? The old the sick the wounded the weak the very young but never the strong. Lesson: If you would not be prey you had better be strong.