"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talents, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new; an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking, is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook". But I realize — only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more."

"Well, I think it is accidental. It’s just something I started doing naturally and it had a lot to do with reading. I think that Dylan Thomas, his prose and poetry, was a big influence on me. Just his use of words… He would use so many odd words: like these three- and four-syllable words that you just don’t normally hear. And they’re not used in a manner that sets the text apart from the reader. Rather they’re drawing the reader in. It’s entirely based on the alliteration of the word itself—onomatopoeia and things like that. I feel like a lot of the words I use don’t stick out in the song because they keep the feel of the song in mind. The rhythm—that’s the primary thing. They’re put in there for rhythm and alliteration as much as they are for meaning. And as long as they are not used extraneously, they’re real lightning rods for people listening to the lyrics. If the words are really helping out the rhythm of the song then all they’re going to do is draw the listener in even more"

"[The Decemberists] generally manage to encompass the Stones, XTC, Morrissey and me without sounding like any of them. It takes a boy from Montana to be that British."

"Find him, bind him, tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters, Drag him to a hole until he wakes up naked Clawing at the ceiling of his grave."

"My mother was a Chinese trapeze artist in pre-war Paris Smuggling bombs for the underground. And she met my father at a fete in Aix-en-Provence; He was disguised as a Russian cadet in the employ of the Axis."

"All instruments sound fantastic in a church."

"Well, I think you just have to be prepared to be weirder and weirder. I follow the example of Robyn Hitchcock who, I think, has created a career out of this world he has constructed. It’s very much his world, and he continually builds upon it. I think he’s received criticism in the past along the lines of, “Oh, here’s another Robyn Hitchcock record about flesh and fish,” and things like that, but in fact if you really look at the songs, they’re just the building blocks for this very complex, very vibrant, and very real world that exists within his songwriting. So I look to him for inspiration."

"A little bit of both. 'Decembrist' is the accepted English translation of the Russian 'Dekabristy.' We appropriated it by adding the extra E, which, in my opinion, made it a better band name. For whatever reason."

"I've never said, 'I have diabetes, so I can’t bust my ass on this play.'"

"My mustache speaks to me... it says, 'Together, we will return the NBA to the glory of its mustache days. Pistol Pete, Kurt Rambis and Clyde Frazier.' And in the offseason, my mustache and I will drive around in a muscle car solving mysteries. Times will be good. My mustache is very wise."

"‘Fight if you wish. Deny what is before you if it comforts you. But nothing you do can change your fate.’"

"‘I am not ready. But when will we ever be ready?’"

"Change is neither good nor bad, but knowledge is always useful."

"War was a catalog of madness."

"Better to die than to live in fear."

"‘Then I guess we have no choice but to go forward. When have we ever had any choice but to go forward?’"

"‘I am not who I was, but I know who I am.’"

"‘I cannot forgive, but I understand.’"

"“I am the victor. In the end nothing else matters.’"

"‘You of all people should know that everything in this world must be paid for, whether in gold, time, or blood.’"

"Death, he had come to believe, was a corrosive thing, and the more he was around it, the more it gnawed away at who he was."

"To search and seek among the outer bounds, And when we land upon a distant shore, To seek another yet farther still."

"The songs of the dead are the lamentations of the living."

"When you can have anything you want by uttering a few words, the goal matters not, only the journey to it."

"No-one can function properly without occasional peace and quiet."

"So tell me, is it true that men have ten toes, as is said?"

"Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now."

"Shall we dance, friend of my heart?"

"‘It’s impossible to go through life unscathed. Nor should you want to. By the hurts we accumulate, we measure both our follies and our accomplishments.’"

"‘I don’t know how else to teach you what you need to learn except by showing you your mistakes over and over again until you stop making them.’"

"‘You cheated.’ ‘No, I exploited a weakness in my opponent. There is a difference.’"

"You must learn to see what you are looking at."

"Well, I suppose I won't see you for a while. So farewell, good luck, avoid roasted cabbage, don't eat ear wax, and look on the bright side of life!"

"It never struck me as interesting that I didn't go to school — we had our own little world. I always thought of kids who were going to regular school as if they're the others, the separate ones."

"It seems a cold world without something … more." "On the contrary," said Oromis, "it is a better world . A place where we are responsible for our own actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and because it is the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment. I won't tell you what to believe, Eragon. It is far better to be taught to think critically and then be allowed to make your own decisions than to have someone else's notions thrust upon you. You asked after our religion, and I have answered you true. Make of it what you will."

"My father's work will not go unfinished, even if it takes me to the grave. That is what I want you, as a rider, to understand. All of Ajihad's plans, all his strategies and goals, they are mine now. I will not fail him by being weak. The empire will be brought down, Galbatorix will with dethroned, and the rightful government will be raised."

"Characters are born from necessity."

"Those whom we love are often the most alien to us."

"Applied properly, it [logic] can overcome any lack of wisdom, which one only gains through age and experience."

"‘When you teach them—teach them not to fear. Fear is good in small amounts, but when it is a constant, pounding companion, it cuts away at who you are and makes it hard to do what is right.’"