Asking Quotations

The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.

We have such a high drop-out rate from musicians, said the head of the college. He was right - I dropped out before I even dropped in. Months later they were still asking what had happened to me, not realising that I was on a UK tour.

I am a big car enthusiast. I totally understand guys like Jay Leno who have a thousand cars. But asking me my favorite car would be like asking my favorite song or favorite food - it changes everyday.

In effect, I was asking that if Russia mobilized against Austria, the German Government, who had been supporting the Austrian demand on Serbia, should ask Austria to consider some modification of her demands, under the threat of Russian mobilization.

I see groups that are hot one minute, and next time you see them, they're asking if you want a soda with that Happy Meal.

Asking what I considered an impossible salary when I didn't want to work for someone has boosted my pay again and again.

There is no point in asking a man a question until you have established whether he has any reason to lie to you.

I don't think a movie today that captured all the things that we did in the seventies could come close, because it's like asking to recreate the seventies and the audience sensibilities and that's impossible.

Survival is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever asking myself what I can do for those who have not survived.

Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.

Asking someone to describe what something sounds like is like telling a blind person to guess what I look like.

Every photo shoot, I'm always asking the makeup artist what they're using on me, and I'll go out and get it.

We are the rebels asking for the storm, and believing that truth is only to be found in an endless search. If the 'World Spirit' touches you, do not expect that it will be painless.

Sixty-four thousand dollars for a question, I hope they are asking you the meaning of life.

I did a 'Last Comic Standing' audition in 2006, where you're just performing for three people in a comedy club, in a big comedy club, and I remember them cutting me off, asking about my name in the middle of one of my jokes. Yeah, it's just real weird when you're doing stand-up in that type of sterile, unnatural setting.

I see all these people talking about acting as a great spiritual thing. It's not. There's no great mystery to acting. It's a very simple thing to do, but you have to work hard at it. It's about asking questions and using your imagination.

I still remember asking my high school guidance teacher for permission to take a second year of algebra instead of a fifth year of Latin. She looked down her nose at me and sneered, 'What lady would take mathematics instead of Latin?'

God does not begin by asking our ability, only our availability, and if we prove our dependability, He will increase our capability.

I can remember a reporter asking me for a quote, and I didn't know what a quote was. I thought it was some kind of soft drink.

It's hard asking someone with a broken heart to fall in love again.

I had been asking the universe and God to send me a way for me to help me. Show business has been so wonderful to me, and it came in the form of that. Its just so funny how things come into your life, and if you take a chance on them, it might give you a brand new life.

You've got to ask! Asking is, in my opinion, the world's most powerful - and neglected - secret to success and happiness.

Effective management always means asking the right question.

I got my first job the old-fashioned way: I took an elevator to the top floor of many buildings and walked down floor by floor on the stairs going into every firm and asking the receptionist if she knew of any jobs available.

The idea of 'advice,' in terms of telling people advice or asking people for advice, has become not comprehensible to me, to a certain degree, due to feeling, like, for something to be accurately defined as 'good' or 'bad,' I would want to know the context, goal, perspective for it.

With a traditional human resources system, we would work with a company, select the product, customise and implement the system, and our job would be over. Some companies are changing and asking why do they need to own the HR system when they can connect to an Internet service and pay as you go?

When I was seven, I gave a letter to Cinderella in Disney World asking if I could be in a Disney movie. So, working for Disney was really a childhood dream come true.

I'm asking you to talk with your friends, neighbors, and relatives - even the ones you've never talked to about reproductive rights. That's how you can throw your number in the bucket, and stand with a president who has stood with us. Conversation by conversation, vote by vote, we will re-elect President Barack Obama!

Until Lee Elder, the only blacks at the Masters were caddies or waiters. To ask a black man what he feels about the traditions of the Masters is like asking him how he feels about his forefathers who were slaves.

When I was in the group homes, I saw some of the kids being moved into foster homes with the potential for adoption. I remember well asking a social worker if I could find a home, too. I was told I was 'too old' and 'no one wants to adopt a 16-year-old.' I felt hopeless and alone.

People who watch 'Transporter' are maybe asking a little less about reality, being serious, and so on.

To become a doctor, you spend so much time in the tunnels of preparation - head down, trying not to screw up, trying to make it from one day to the next - that it is a shock to find yourself at the other end, with someone shaking your hand and asking how much money you want to make.

I'll tell you that when an innocent person is killed, we never go about asking or inquiring whether they were Jewish or Christian or Muslim. That's not our way or creed.

When we look up at the night sky and wonder, 'Is there anyone else out there?' we're also asking who we are in relation to them.

I never step upon a stage without asking myself whether I will succeed in finishing the opera. The fact is that a conscientious singer is never sure of himself or of anything. He is ever in the hands of Destiny.

Almost everyone thinks they are a good person, but the question you should be asking is, am I good enough to go to Heaven? How would you know?

Asking a critic to name his favorite book is like asking a butcher to name his favorite pig.

When I first got the call from my manager asking if I'd ever heard of Jesse Owens, I recognized the name, looked him up, and was blown away by his story.

'Who are we?' And to me that's the essential question that's always been in science fiction. A lot of science fiction stories are - at their very best - evocations of that question. When we look up at the night sky and wonder, 'Is there anyone else out there?' we're also asking who we are we in relation to them.

It might seem unfair to reward a person for having so much pleasure over the years, asking the maize plant to solve specific problems and then watching its responses.

In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch Is offering too little and asking too much. The French are with equal advantage content, So we clap on Dutch bottoms just twenty per cent.

If you're asking me where my heart and where I'm happy is, I love playing with Tom Brady. I love being coached by Bill Belichick.

Sometimes you ask God for something and you don't know what you're asking.

No one is asking what happened to all the homeless. No one cares, because it's easier to get on the subway and not be accosted.

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

What is jazz? It, It's almost like asking, What is French? Jazz is a musical language. It's a musical dialect that actually embodies the spirit of America.

I'd watched every episode of 'True Blood' from the very beginning. The show's characters were in my blood, so when I started, I was really prepared. I made sure I wasn't the new guy asking stupid questions on his first day.

Some candidates can sit in an office for 10 hours a day asking for money. That's just not who I am.

Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.

You can't legislate into existence an act of forgiveness and a true confession; those are mysteries of the human heart, and they occur between one individual and another individual, not a panel of judges sitting asking questions, trying to test your truth.

I'm always looking, and I'm always asking questions.

Everyone keeps asking you for pictures, and after a while you get tired of that. I always say, They are in the archives.

I spent a lot of time in churches. If you go to a synagogue, someone is always asking if you're alone, if you're married. In a church, in a hundred years no one would ask.

It's hard to make a living as a novelist. My first novel 'Tapping the Source' made quite a splash in Hollywood, and people started asking if I wanted to write scripts. I quickly realized I could make a lot more money that way.

My salary situation at 'Morning Joe' wasn't right. I made five attempts to fix it, then realized I'd made the same mistake every time: I apologised for asking.

I think people are going to keep asking me about Macaulay. Some things change and some things don't.

Asking me why I did or didn't do anything is generally pointless. How do I know? And asking me what I'll do in the future is even less rewarding.

And that was what I was asking to happen and I was told that the indictment would be signed, but I was coming to the end of my one-year contract, I had to return to New Zealand for personal reasons.

I ask questions, and a large part of my life has been spent asking questions of Ken Livingstone.

I'm friends with Taylor Swift, and I am tired of people asking me questions about our friendship. When I post a picture of us on Instagram, I'm posting a picture of me and my friend.

I think all good architecture should challenge you, make you start asking questions. You don't have to understand it. You may not like it. That's OK.

I've had journalists asking me, 'What do we call you - is it handicapped, are you disabled, physically challenged?' I said, 'Well hopefully you could just call me Aimee. But if you have to describe it, I'm a bilateral below-the-knee amputee.'

We talk about Hollywood being pro-labor, yet about 70% of our industry has been farmed out to Canada, meaning we are losing jobs like crazy. Where's organized labor asking how we can allow such a thing to happen?

And, as you recall, last year, people were asking us, don't vote on the bill until you read every part of the bill. So, as a good attorney and as a good legislator, I think it's my responsibility to read the amendments.

I wrote an episode for 'thirtysomething,' and a producer said, 'That's really good, but what is it about? What does it say about you? What questions are you asking yourself?' I had never thought about that. This comment changed who I was, because it made me look at my own soul, the dark corners in my soul, and accept that dark side.

British people might wonder 'What the hell is Kenneth Branagh doing directing 'Thor?' but the person asking that the most was Kenneth Branagh. I think he was more surprised than anyone else to find himself doing this kind of film.

I don't want fame as far as the tweeting or the image of it. But, the idea of being famous is actually exciting to me, just because then you can have a choice in what you do. I would like to be at a point where I'm not asking for parts anymore, and I'm actually just choosing between a part that I want to do.

I initially thought 'Lewis' was a terrible idea. The character had very much been Morse's work donkey and sounding board. But I was persuaded to do it, thinking if it was a flop, at least ITV would stop asking me. But the pilot took off, so we got back on this moving train, and we've never looked back.

You have to think about why you're asking an audience to come to the theater. It's not that they should come because it's good for them, because it's the vegetables that they should eat and the culture shot that they should get... It's about experience and building community and catalyzing dialogue and bringing people together.

The question arises whether all lawyers are the same. This is like asking whether everything that gets into a sewer is garbage.

Philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions.

Even my parents are so cute, and they deal with every movie of mine excellently. They check with me ever so casually by asking 'Now how much of nudity are we going to see in this one?

People are always asking me why they don't make Westerns like they used to.

The human race is a very, very magical race. We have a magic power of witches and wizards. We're here on this earth to unravel the mystery of this planet. The planet is asking for it.

Best strategy for a first date is to ask her questions. Just keeping asking her questions about herself. Her life, her job, her friends, her taste in movies and music and everything. People mostly just want to talk about themselves, so let her do that.

The reason given by the President in asking Congress to declare war against Germany is that the German government has declared certain war zones, within which, by the use of submarines, she sinks, without notice, American ships and destroys American lives.

As far as we were concerned, we were operators, we were administrators. I don't ever recall going to Dean Acheson and asking for any counsel or advice on administration, but I had the greatest respect for him, as I have today.

Honestly, I don't think I'm a good promoter. I spend almost zero time or effort asking new readers to sample or purchase my work. That's not the job of the author. We should write our best material and leave it up to readers to spread the word.

We're often ashamed of asking for so much help because it seems selfish or petty or narcissistic, but I think, if there's a God - and I believe there is - that God is there to help. That's what God's job is.

Some religious practitioners make absolutist claims for their beliefs: I've no interest in doing this, nor do I have any interest in converting people, which is doubtless a relief to anyone who has feared finding me on their doorstep asking if they'd like to know more about Odin.

I am guilty of asking the Senate for pork and proud of the Senate for giving it to me.

Quite a lot of people wanted me to write about my family, I suppose for fairly obvious reasons, and there was always something that would stop me, I thought they were asking me for the wrong motives.

All I'm asking for is the law that's been on the books for the last 33 years, no public funding for abortion. We are both saying the same thing, pro-life, pro-choice. Let's find the language that works for both of us so we can pass health care.

Chefs have only been able to work in restaurants, high-end cuisine. Why? Why haven't they been able to find other scenarios? For those chefs who want to do avant-garde cuisine, should they be finding their income in a restaurant? These are the kind of questions we are asking ourselves. So the new scenario will allow them to do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it.

And I'm asking for your support because I want to defend America, as I've said before, from becoming a socialist nation

True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection.

That's sort of like asking a parent who their favorite child is. It's very hard to determine. Sometimes I'll get feedback from somebody who liked this part of the show. Others like another part of the show.

Anyone who agrees to be interviewed must decide where to draw the line between what is public and what is private. But the line can shift, depending on who is asking the questions. What puts someone on guard isn't necessarily the fear of being 'found out.' It sometimes is just the fear of being misunderstood.

Cultural confinement takes place when a curator imposes his own limits on an art exhibition, rather than asking an artist to set his limits.

I am always thinking about writing music; my wife is constantly asking me: 'Is there any way you can turn off the music part of your brain for a minute?' but I really can't! It's my form of therapy.

In September, I left the show. We were going through discussions and negotiations, and I had been on the show for about 11 years, and there were some things that I was asking for that I didn't feel were the moon or the stars.

I have an incredible confidence in the resilience of the human spirit and the creative ability of the Holy Spirit. So, if you can get people asking the right questions, it really will start moving in the right direction.

But these realities will make themselves felt soon enough and while I am certainly not asking you to close your eyes to the experiences of earlier generations, I want to advise you not to conform too soon and to resist the pressure of practical necessity.

This will help us next year with the World Cup. I can imagine a lot of visitors from abroad will be here and asking what happened between 1933 and 1945. A lot of that will come up. I think this will make an important contribution to those discussions.

You're asking the wrong girl about fame. I'm hardly famous. I wouldn't want to trade places with anyone else.

He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is against it.

No foreigner has a place asking another people, another country, to change their constitution.

I've been pitching a show of five female stand-up comedians through the generations, from Phyllis Diller to Amy Schumer, so when I got an e-mail asking me if I would participate in the Women in Comedy Festival, I was thrilled.

A creationist can embarrass an evolutionist by asking for a definition of species.

I was asking Charlie the most important questions, and you heard the answers.