Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

It is jazz music that called me to be a musician and I have always sang the songs that moved me the most. Singers like Frank Sinatra and myself we interpret the songs that we like. Not unlike a Shakespearean actor that goes back to the greatest words ever written we go back to the greatest songs.

Some of the greatest blues music is some of the darkest music you've ever heard.

Music the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

Nevertheless the passions whether violent or not should never be so expressed as to reach the point of causing disgust and music even in situations of the greatest horror should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it and thereby always remain music.

To me the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about but the inner music that words make.

Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity and here has its greatest effect on life an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.

The first two movies I directed failed when I was 21 and 23 and that was the greatest thing that could have happened.

Poverty was the greatest motivating factor in my life.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

The greatest job I ever had was working on my family farm. Each morning my father would come into my bedroom around 4:30 am and command me to get up and work the fields. I would spend the next two hours before school slopping pigs and cropping tobacco.

Thanks to the greatest invention of recent years the MP3-playing alarm clock I can now choose the song that wakes me up in the morning.

For me the greatest revenge of all is having a happy adulthood waking up in my gorgeous turquoise bedroom in the morning beside a person who really inspires me. That's the best revenge a girl-loving girl from the Bible belt could possibly have. And importantly it's healthy.

I should just put it bluntly because we're all sort of friends here now - it's exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me. Oh so Jesus what a thought! You know that's the kind of thought that could lead a person to start drinking gin at nine o'clock in the morning and I don't want to go there.

But it's a blessing to be so successful within a year it's the greatest feeling in the world making money and doing the things that I'm doing and I definitely trying to continue doing what I'm doing.

For me the greatest source of income is still movies. Nothing - stocks financial speculation real estate speculation or businesses - makes more money for me than making movies.

Our greatest lack is not money for any undertaking but rather ideas If the ideas are good cash will somehow flow to where it is needed.

You are your greatest asset. Put your time effort and money into training grooming and encouraging your greatest asset.

One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure and so my reward in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

Because of my unique experience as my mom's child the beginning of my journey was more about me trying to figure out who I was on my own. My mom is one of the greatest moms and so supportive of all my siblings and of all of us being who we are and not who she wanted us to be.

I have lots of records quite a collection actually that I stole from my mom. I have the original 'Thriller' album and I have a really great 'Elton John's Greatest Hits ' and I also have a N.E.R.D. album. Records sound more original. They have more edge.

Mom was the greatest influence of my childhood. She wanted to save me from the vice lust and drinking that was all about me.