I want to see far more decisions taken far closer to the patients the passengers and the pupils. Far more power for locally and regionally elected politicians who understand best the needs of their areas. And far more say too for the dedicated staff at all levels in health and education.

It's not like I had big dreams to go to California and become an actor. I loved doing my shows at school and community theater and I probably would have settled in New York because it was closer. I was going to go to NYU.

Google is a global Rorschach test. We see in it what we want to see. Google has built an infrastructure that makes a lot of dreams closer to reality.

I think cinema is closer to allegories than to reality. It's closer to our dreams.

For most of my 20s I looked like I was 12. Now that I'm pushing 40 I guess I look closer to... 15? It must be my macrobiotic diet. Oh wait except that I don't have one of those.

It's not life or death it's a game and at the end of the game there is going to be a winner and a loser.

You always think that 70 is the end of the road: 'Somebody died when they were 73 good life'. You're closer to death and you better make sure you don't waste too much of your time doing things you don't want to do. No point in saying things you don't believe in.

Every dad who loves his daughter is not going to want her to go with the penniless slacker loser poet bum when she could go out with someone who's successful.

We all started snowboarding in the beginning as a family just to be closer together go on trips. It was our soccer but instead of Dad yelling at me from the sideline he is there riding with me and hitting the jumps even before I am hitting them.

I forgive my mom for being a psycho and my dad for being a loser.

I joined MySpace in September 2003. At that time no one was on there at all. I felt like a loser while all the cool kids were at some other school. So I mass e-mailed between 30 000 and 50 000 people and told them to come over. Everybody joined overnight.

I was in a really crummy pop-punk band. I think we did a whole bunch of Blink-182 covers and we were on the fringe of losers and jocks. So we invited all the cool kids to come watch us play in our bass player's brother's bedroom. And it was terrible but everyone thought we were so cool.

I would like to do a musical if I could find a cool one. A song-and-dance role is closer to me personally than other characters I play.

The Internet has brought communities across the globe closer together through instant communication.

I do genuinely believe that the political system is not linear. When it reaches a tipping point fashioned by a critical mass of opinion the slow pace of change we're used to will no longer be the norm. I see a lot of signs every day that we're moving closer and closer to that tipping point.

The 9-9-9 plan would resuscitate this economy because it replaces the outdated tax code that allows politicians to pick winners and losers and to provide favors in the form of tax breaks special exemptions and loopholes. It simplifies the code dramatically: 9% business flat tax 9% personal flat tax 9% sales tax.

I think if you look at people whether in business or government who haven't had any moral compass who've just changed to say whatever they thought the popular thing was in the end they're losers.