The older I grow the more I see the influence of my family on my life. I didn't always see it. It was up to our parents to see that we had our education in a town that hadn't yet realized what racial prejudice was but actually knew and practiced it on occasion.

My mom was on welfare and the occasional food stamp but I have never participated in any of those governmental programs even the ones that kind of work like education scholarships and whatever and I managed to do just fine.

In Seattle I soon found that my radical ideas and aesthetic explorations - ideas and explorations that in Richmond Virginia might have gotten me stoned to death with hush puppies - were not only accepted but occasionally applauded.

Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status.

I think a nice romantic dinner should be saved for when you and the girl you're dating or seeing have something special and it's a more special occasion.

I recruited my dad to be my bass player and fired him on several occasions. He stayed on as a bus driver.

One of the things I like about when I tour sometimes is that occasionally you'll see a dad there with his 12-year-old son and they're both enjoying it.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it courage which arises from a sense of duty acts in a uniform manner.

Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak.

Computers are scary. They're nightmares to fix lose our stuff and on occasion they crash producing the blue screen of death. Steve Jobs knew this. He knew that computers were bulky and hernia-inducing and Darth Vader black. He understood the value of declarative design.

I don't understand why people whose entire lives or their corporate success depends on communication and yet they are led on occasion by CEOs who cannot talk their way out of a paper bag and don't care to.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise you will have the gift the style the sharpness the clarity and the emotions to affect other people.

It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who do not think it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.

Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences should not constitute occasions for sadness but realities for awareness so that one may be happy in the interim.

The idea that maybe you don't have to own a car if you only need one occasionally may catch on just like time-sharing caught on in real estate.

I used to work for a management consulting company so I dressed differently - business casual probably a lot of things from Banana Republic. My wardrobe now is definitely more expensive but I always dress for the occasion.

Writing fiction is for me a fraught business an occasion of daily dread for at least the first half of the novel and sometimes all the way through. The work process is totally different from writing nonfiction. You have to sit down every day and make it up.

After I left the White House I kept a foothold in the business of American politics as a talk-show host analyst commentator speechmaker and occasional writer. I was no longer a practitioner but I was still a partisan a Democrat a blue-stater through and through.

My mom won't let me buy high-fashion stuff unless it's TK Maxx or a birthday occasion.

Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.

When I am traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal or during the night when I cannot sleep it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly.

That they may have a little peace even the best dogs are compelled to snarl occasionally.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

Those who govern having much business on their hands do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom but forced by the occasion.