The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo.

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

I think women as well as men are concerned about jobs and the economy and spending and and other issues. They're concerned that when their kids graduate from college they have an economy and they have a future in this country and they they have the same opportunity that we've had and our grandparents have had.

The word 'good' has many meanings. For example if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards I should call him a good shot but not necessarily a good man.

A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness it teaches industry and thrift above all it teaches entire trust.

What appeals to me? There are things points of view uses of the language habits of dress ways of thought and believing that came to me from my grandparents and came to them from theirs. Things that are of good use in any situation no matter what the future may hold.

I said tonight I wanted to talk to you about love. Look into your hearts. This is our country. This is our future. These are our children and grandchildren. You can trust Mitt.

It is strange. I see all the privileges and greatness of the future. It already looks grand beautiful. Tell them I went lovingly trustfully peacefully.

My parents grandparents aunts and uncles were all funny and I felt that energy that delivery that timing that sarcasm. All that stuff seeped into my brain.

That's why I like to get out there and get people to see the other side of Mitt and know us in a different reflection when you see the family and how funny he is with the boys and with the grandkids. And you know just what a super guy he is. That's part of what I am doing is letting people see the other side of Mitt.

My grandchildren are fabulous and funny.

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now and we don't know where the hell she is.

Ray Bradbury is for many reasons the most influential writer in my life. Throughout our long friendship Ray supplied not only his terrific stories but a grand model of what a writer could be should be and yet rarely is: brilliant and charming and accessible willing to tolerate and to teach happy to inspire but also to be inspired.

I think there is a heritage which I'm proud of which is a fight for democracy a fight for social justice a fight for freedom. My grandfather went to jail or exile six times in his life fighting for his principles for democracy or for his country. And my father twice.

My view is that good community management is like having good municipal government: You should be able to have dissenting opinions and so on freedom of speech but your grandmother should also be able to walk down the street at night without having to worry about getting mugged.

In France today people no longer eat as much heavy food and fat as they did 15 or 20 years ago. These days French cooking through the influence of 'grande cuisine ' has become a bit lighter. And we are beginning to discover the original flavors of our produce.

You don't have to look far to taste some of the best food the world has to offer. I'd pit my grandmother against a 3-star Michelin chef any day.