Life is not a matter of place, things or comfort; rather, it concerns the basic human rights of family, country, justice and human dignity.
A fanatic commits to an ideal to whatever end. A fanatic throws everything aside to pursue their idea. Take something which it would be good to be committed to, like basic human rights. You might campaign for such a thing. You might spend every day of your life pursuing such a thing. But once you become fanatical about it, anything can happen.
I believe that every American should have stable, dignified housing; health care; education - that the most very basic needs to sustain modern life should be guaranteed in a moral society.
Entertainment is there to improve people's quality of life. After your basic needs, there's entertainment.
What people want is their basic needs. So I'm trying to help people ensure their basic need: that means food security, healthcare, education, and job opportunity and a better life.
I liked the military life. They teach you self-sufficiency early on. I always say that I learned most of what I know about leadership in the Marine Corps. Certain basic principles stay with you - sometimes consciously, mostly unconsciously.
Governments will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They set public policy and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make sure solutions reach everyone who needs them. They also fund basic research, which is a crucial component of the innovation that improves life for everyone.
In basic research, the use of the electron microscope has revealed to us the complex universe of the cell, the basic unit of life.
I guess what I'd like to say is that people in Sierra Leone are human beings, just like Americans. They want to send their kids to school; they want to live in peace; they want to have their basic rights of life just like everyone else. I think we all owe an obligation to support people who want to do that.
Throughout my whole life, as a performer, I've never played with a band. I've always played alone, so I was never required to stay in rhythm or anything. So it was a real different experience for me to start playing with a band. There were so many basic things for me to learn.
Sharia is, for me, a personal basic set of guidelines that Muslims follow. It's about being respectful to elders. It's about praying five times a day. It's about etiquette that I have with members of my family. It's about inheritance, and it's about how we get married. Just the kind of basic things that anyone engages in in life.
I really love fashion, but I feel like the older I get, the more I am drawn to the basic things in my daily life because everything else is so goofy and crazy.
When you're young, you don't have a lot of control over even basic things in your life - where you live, what you eat, where you go during the day, how you get there. You don't have a lot of control, and that can feel sort of unstable in its own way because you don't get a say in those basic things.
Basically, I feel fortunate to have realized what the goal is in life. There's no point in dying having gone through your life without knowing who you are, what you are, or what the purpose of life is. And that's all it is.
Basically, when you get to my age, you'll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.
Most people are basically a victim of the circumstances of their life. They have things like 9/11, they have terrorism threats, they have new war threats, they have economy problems, and they think, 'What can I do? I'm basically a victim.'
I don't even call them fans. I don't like that. They're literally just a part of my life; they're a part of my family. I don't think of them as on a lower level than me. I don't think I'm anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they're basically all of my siblings.
Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.
I think a big test we all face in life on a regular basis is that discouragement test. Life's not always fair, but I believe if you keep doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are.
Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that.
