If we don't get gun-control laws in this country we are full of beans. To have the National Rifle Association rule the United States is pathetic. And I agree with Mayor Michael Bloomberg: It's time to put up or shut up about gun control for both parties.

If we attempt to block the development of new technology we effectively have ensured that the most responsible parties will not develop them.

It was so draining. Going to parties to rub elbows with so-and-so and act like it's no big deal when really all I was doing was hoping I'd have the success they had.

I think the deafness affects me more than I realise I think it makes me more tired. I loathe parties. I attend smile and leave.

I try to make an album that reflects what I love about country music. It's not just all about happy parties all the time. There are some sad songs.

The hardest thing is at the end you have to say bye to all these people who you have worked with for so many months. It was really sad not to see them anymore. But you have the parties that you go to and you get to see them like the premieres and the screenings.

Wrap parties can be really sad actually disorienting.

So I really would like to see both parties respond to the poor with greater commitment. But I've got to tell you the Democrats I feel are doing a better job in that respect than Republicans are.

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation a mental or physical barter to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.

It is always a disappointment to turn from forthright consideration of some subject - whether from the Left or the Right a poet or a plumber - to the Beltway version in which the only aspects of the issue that matter are the effects it will have on the fortunes of the two parties and the various men in power.