The left dismisses talk about the collapse of family life and talks instead about the emergence of the growing new diversity of family types.

The proper reply to right wing religiosity is not to insist that politics and religion don't mix. This is the stock response of the left.

A society that has made 'nostalgia' a marketable commodity on the cultural exchange quickly repudiates the suggestion that life in the past was in any important way better than life today.

Ostensibly rigorous and realistic, contemporary conservatism is an ideology of denial. Its symbol is a smile button.

Social enables word of mouth at an unprecedented scale. Its most powerful effect, through reviews and recommendations, is to put product quality and value for money as the key to success in commerce. Social brings a level of transparency that prevents marketers from advertising their way to success without underlying product quality.

I was successful materially, but I know life is much more than worldly success. I saw all these blessings God had given me. The way to give thanks is obedience to God.

Allah says in the Qur'an not to despise one another. So the criterion in Islam is not color or social status. It's who is most righteous. If I go to a mosque - and I'm a basketball player with money and prestige - if I go to a mosque and see an imam, I feel inferior. He's better than me. It's about knowledge.

Ilaiyaraaja is my most favourite music director. His music was my lullaby, his music was my food, his music was my childhood, his music was my first love, his music was my failure, his music was my first kiss, my first love failure, my success... he is in my blood.

I am a very positive person in real life.

I have played so many romantic roles that I don't know if I am really a romantic in real life. I get confused about the real me.

I made shorts films, learning the dos and don'ts. Most importantly, I've been editing all these short films. Nothing can teach you filmmaking like editing can.

I would be lying if I said I did not feel bad when 'Shamitabh' failed, but I was proud to be associated with a film like this. If it were easy to know the pulse of the audience, then all movies would be blockbusters.

Apart from 'VIP' being a blockbuster movie, the various characters such as mine, the Luna bike I use in the movie, the lovable amma and appa, a pet dog named Harry Potter, the innocent brother, etc., had a huge reach among the audiences.

Music is my breath, blood and food - without music I would perish; the actor in me would die.

Of course, the most important factor of all for long life is a good family. When a person goes home with the wife or the kids giving him endless headaches, then it's hard for that person to enjoy a long life. I am very fortunate, because my wife Elizabeth and my obedient children are very good; they have given me happiness.

The most important factors for a long life, I think, are partly in the genes; number two is lifestyle, which includes healthy diet and regular exercise. I walk, run and swim every day. However, I think too much exercise is also unhealthy because of over-stress; sometimes people who exercise too many hours per day die early.

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.

The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.

Nine tenths of education is encouragement.

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't.

An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.

Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.

Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.

I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women's clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.

The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.

Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.

Mainly, I hope to inspire honesty. We live in a space where so much can be manipulated, and so much is expected to be manipulated - curated, contrived, edited. I think that's a real detriment to self expression and happiness in a lot of ways. In my mind, honesty and vulnerability is the way forward.

The more time passes in your life, I think the greater you understand perspective. So I'm happy that I've had experiences that have reminded me that most exciting things might not feel so exciting later, and the most disappointing things might not be so disappointing later, either.

I hope people describe my music as lyrically driven, cross genre. Kind of alternative, kind of indie, kind of rap, kind of everything.

I think a part of me thought that I might be interested in academia because I really do love school. I mean that on all levels - I like educational environments; I like being part of that community of learning and exploration. And I like to talk.

It's great - that's the best part about being famous is that people want to get to know me. People come up to me and introduce themselves, and I make friends, and then I meet their friends. It seems like I have a very happy and comfortable social life, which is something I never had when I was younger.

I'm just living each day, and I'm better equipped to do so. I mean, I used to be totally afraid, I used to have, like, permanent stage fright. But now I'm trying to have fun. I'm trying to bring as much happiness to as many people as possible.

I meditate an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. Once a year I go away for a long retreat. And overall, I just feel more comfortable in my own skin and less anxious, less sad, less fearful.

I had rock-star dreams from 8 or 9 almost nonstop. I thought it was going to be like being a god on earth: having as many women as you want whenever you want them, having super powers, being incredibly wealthy, never doing laundry.

I always like balance. If I'm playing rock music all the time, chances are I'll start craving some lighter, poppier stuff, both to listen to and to play. I compare music to massage. If someone's been working on your back for a long time, you really want them to move down to your legs or something.