But if you observe children learning in their first few years of life you can see that they can and do learn on their own - we leave them alone to crawl walk talk and gain control over their bodies. It happens without much help from parents.

I have a grim outlook on the world and in particular on humanity. Spent years denying it but I am very misanthropic. And I live alone on a mountain for a reason.

Largely this is a class thing - writers tend to be cosseted little middle-class kiddies who think that the world owes them a royalty cheque. But just doing it - being in your room for years on end locked in your head alone with invented ghosts - it weakens and softens the body. And I know I can't just live in my head.

Perhaps the best motivation for going to Mars is political. It is obvious that no single nation currently has either the will or the resources to do it alone but a consortium of nations and space agencies could achieve it within 20 years.

I was able to support myself by acting alone about six years ago. Until then I was just scraping by.

I've performed solo for 20 years now but I don't do much of it because if you only play alone you go crazy and out of tune and play foolish music.

I know that books I have written will still resonate in 50 years - particularly 'My Sister's Keeper.' It has sold three million copies in the States alone. I strongly feel that as a novelist you have a platform and the ability to change people's minds.

I'm not into watching stuff I did last week let alone three or four years ago.

It's always easier if you have the support of your family if you're not alone. I came from a country that has been through a lot of troubles in the last 20 to 30 years but we have been through them together.

Most bands don't even last fourteen months let alone fourteen years.

In the first 50 years of the filibuster it was used only 35 times. But the last Congress alone had 112 cloture motions filed plus threats of more. This is the tyranny of the minority.

Men don't even ask me out. I can't remember the last time I was asked out on a date and I'm talking years here. I spend my life more and more alone.

Simply by not owning three medium-sized castles in Tuscany I have saved enough money in the last forty years on insurance premiums alone to buy a medium-sized castle in Tuscany.

Our world is so glutted with useless information images useless images sounds all this sort of thing. It's a cacophony it's like a madness I think that's been happening in the past twenty-five years. And I think anything that can help a person sit in a room alone and not worry about it is good.

The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable - and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power Who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come we can know that His purposes are just and true.

The first crocodile I ever caught was at nine years of age and it was a rescue.

I do think I feel it but you don't think you are cause at a certain time you are no age but you don't think you are anything. You feel the life you have lived. I feel that. It's been a long fifty years.

When I was at school I was in choirs more than anything else from a very young age about 9 years old. And then I started taking drum lessons.

I remember when I was 6 years old and my brother used to go seek out guys that were 13 to come over and play football against me while he was the 'permanent quarterback.' I didn't know exactly what the age difference was but I was already playing against older guys.

It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age he had been dead for two years.

I think that everyone at any age should ask themselves 'where do I want to be today where do I want to be tomorrow and where do I want to be in a hundred years?' We all have clear answers to those questions. We only have so much time. It's a real shame if we don't spend our lives trying to do that.

I'm never overawed by a situation and I think that's because I've always looked several years older than I am. So because people were treating me like I was 40 when I was 29 I've always felt in control of a situation. People used to say when you're 32 you'll look 32. I'm still waiting for that moment where my age catches up with my appearance.

For me from a pretty young age up until about 21 years old hallucinogenics had a huge place in my life.

I did successfully kick tobacco at the age of 34. I smoked for like 20 years from 14 to 34.