Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Realised Quotes from famous authors such as Lisa Haydon, Freya Ridings, Robin Gibb, Sudha Murty, J. G. Ballard. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!
1
I always wanted to be independent. I worked at a few odd jobs as a teen and, when I was in my early 20s, I soon realised that I disliked unfair bosses. I knew I was disciplined and motivated, and that I would work best when I was self-employed.
2
I realised, however, that you can’t sing when you’re playing the violin – or at least I can’t – and as that aspect of performing is important to me I shifted to the piano.
3
With Maurice suddenly going, I realised… I think I’ve matured. I don’t take things lightly any more.
4
I am touched by my readers who loved my books. All the stories are true incidents in life. Now I have realised, any amount of imagination will not be as beautiful as the real life.
5
I only realised why I keep living in Shepperton when I returned to China. All the people who moved there had come from places just like Shepperton, and so they built and lived in houses exactly like these. I now know I was drawn here because, on an unconscious level, Shepperton reminds me of Shanghai.
6
When I was in graduate school, I had a teacher who said to me, ‘Women writers should marry somebody who thinks writing is cute. Because if they really realised what writing was, they would run a mile.’
7
I was on paper earning more money and having more success than I’d ever had. And it was also the most miserable I’ve ever been. When those things collided, I realised something was off. That’s when I started poking around to figure out what was wrong.
8
I wanted to be a scientist. I did a thesis on lions. But I realised photography can show things writing can’t. Lions were my professor of photography.
9
I’ve realised I’ve hit enough tennis balls to last me a lifetime.
10
Arsenal showed the door to too many people. Why did they let Thierry Henry go? When I found out about his move I realised the Arsenal I played for were finished.
11
I realised some Lazio fans were making monkey noises whenever I touched the ball. It is impossible to know what you are supposed to do in this moment. There were times when I wanted to walk off the pitch to make a point, but then I told myself that this is exactly what they want.
12
I came from a very loving home, had a happy life with no great aspirations, but going to the seminary changed me. There was a chunk of my childhood missing. Once I’d realised it wasn’t for me, I still felt a tremendous pressure to continue for fear of letting everybody down.
13
The key to me recovering from drug addiction was figuring out why I was so upset and why I hated myself so much. I realised it was all to do with the way I was viewed by other people.
14
I haven’t got the patience for small talk, although I once saw a woman standing on her own in the corner, and I realised it was Monica Lewinsky, and I had the nicest evening with her – she was charming.
15
‘Blood Money’ was a stand-alone film, but we worked double for it. We realised how difficult it is to sensitise people to anything new, especially when you don’t have a star.
16
When a player hears the word ‘psychologist’ at the first, you are taken aback, but I realised that I needed help.
17
I remember going down the tunnel into the Olympic Stadium and getting a glimpse of all the people and hearing all the noise, all the people shouting for us. I’d seen Usain Bolt on the warm-up track, and then, as I walked into the stadium, I sort of realised how big it was!
18
I’ve realised that when fashion is really good and really challenges and takes a risk, it is incredibly artistically powerful. It makes people dream.
19
I thought my story was over. But that was when I realised I finally had a story to tell – and it seems to remind people of their own story.
20
There have been some dark times. But what I’ve realised is that I love this sport.
21
I realised one day that men are emotional cripples. We can’t express ourselves emotionally, we can only do it with anger and humour. Emotional stability and expression comes from women.
22
I realised that God has placed Christians everywhere, to support each other, to support the needy in those areas, and that is the thing that I find is a great plus.
23
I am very passionate about what I do; I give it 200 percent, and I don’t think it will ever change. But I’ve realised that, as an actor, you have to give it your best and let it go. That’s the most difficult journey, and it comes with time.
24
It remains to be seen whether the more optimistic scenario for Sino-American relations can be realised. Much rests on the shoulders of the two leaders: Obama on this score has so far been disappointing; the early signs are that Xi is a highly confident leader who thinks big.
25
After my first play, I realised that comedy was my forte – rather than being a dukhi heroine, I would rather do comedy.
26
For my 16th birthday, my family took me to L’Auberge de L’Ill, which was family-run but had three Michelin stars. It was a revelation. After that meal, I realised this is what I want to do.
27
I realised that today we are very much interested in reading about subjects that would have also interested people in the 1500s: ghosts, demons and things that go bump in the night.
28
I have realised taking a stand is tough, but what’s tougher is maintaining it and letting go of all those who doubt your intent.
29
I was a filmy kid. I was two when I faced the camera for the first time. My parents realised it pretty early, and I’m really thankful to them for their support and help.
30
What I thankfully realised in time is that just being a commercial hero means the market is limited.
31
I was working with stem cells as part of a NASA programme. We realised that the science of stem-cell proliferation was also fundamental to cancer cells when cancer enters the phase of metastasis.
32
I realised those things my ego needed – fame and success – were going to make me terribly unhappy. So I wrenched myself away from that. I had to. I had to walk away from America and say goodbye to the biggest part of my career because I knew, otherwise, my demons would get the better of me.
33
I have been a good theatre artiste since my school and college days, but when I participated in ‘Cine Stars Ki Khoj,’ I realised that I could touch people’s hearts when I performed.
34
Then realising and being told that I wasn’t going to be able to race anymore, that was a whole different stage. It’s that old thing of you don’t know what you’ve got, right? Pretty quickly I realised how much I was going to miss doing what I do.
35
Why did I write ‘The Emperor of All Maladies?’ A 56-year-old woman with an abdominal sarcoma, having undergone two remissions and a relapse, asked me to describe what she was battling. By the time I had finished answering her, I realised that I had written 600 pages.
36
I realised that you just don’t know about destiny. You think you are in control of your fate but, really, you are not. There are other powers at work. You don’t get to see the full picture until decades later.
37
To avoid depression while travelling, I always take loads of items that make me feel connected with home. I can’t even explain the joy I felt when I realised I’d remembered to pack my vanilla and mango scented beard oil. The feeling of euphoria was similar to my kids being born.
38
I realised that if you get yourself labeled as the funny one, people don’t look any further. I’ve used that as I’ve got older. It’s controlling: I decide what part of my personality you’re seeing. I don’t want you to look at me, I really don’t. I don’t want you to comment on my clothes, my hair or the way I look.
39
I met a lot of label people at the start of doing this music thing, and I just realised soon that it wasn’t much about music but more so about their paycheck at the end of the day.
40
The first time I thought I should be an actor was in school. I thought, ‘At least this is something for which I won’t have to study.’ But I’ve realised that an actor needs to be constantly unsure about what he’s doing and about what’s going on around him. The moment you think you’ve nailed it, you’re dead.
41
You get tough when you grow up unloved. People described me as a boyish girl – rather shy, but I didn’t show it. I had an attitude. I was rather wild. I lied a lot because I knew the alternative was to be punished. As I got older I realised I didn’t have to lie any more and it was a nice feeling. I could be myself.
42
Movies tie things up in an arbitrary length of time, but I have always liked things that aren’t fully realised.
43
When someone like me takes a sabbatical, it leads to a few happy realisations. It was only when I was away that I realised how films are such a big part of my life.
44
It feels great to see the kind of love people showered on me when I was shooting for ‘London Dreams’ in Chandigarh. It was overwhelming and touching. That was when I realised the kind of fan following I have.
45
I realised one thing – you cannot work on your own follies till the time you accept that you have them in the first place.
46
My attitude goes back to my childhood. I used to audition for theatrical roles, and you can’t stand out in a room full of ambitious eight-year-old girls by acting the wallflower. I realised then that I couldn’t do things half-heartedly.
47
Finally, I have realised that it is important to look good.
48
I have played a mentally challenged person, a quadriplegic – but blind, I realised, is the most difficult because eyes are the most involuntary muscles in our body. Like, our pupils and their dilations are involuntary.
49
I didn’t enjoy studying for my A-levels, so didn’t really want to go to University to do something overly academic, and when I saw that Creative Writing was an option, I suddenly realised that it was something I could try to do.
50
I must have been five or six when I realised all the stuff I was writing made sense with what I was playing on the piano.
51
I grew up on Mel Brooks films. That was film to me until I got a little bit older and realised there were other kinds of movies.
52
Eventually I realised there must be a way by playing with the molecules; trying to turn the molecules on and off allows you to see adjacent things you couldn’t see before.
53
I believe I was put on this planet to act, and it’s given me huge fulfilment. I feel I’ve realised my destiny, and I’ve had a very, very good time doing it.
54
I’ve realised that I actually like being by myself.
55
I went to drama school and, after that, went to Paris to train at a place called Ecole Philippe Gaulier. When I came home, I realised I’d have to have a serious stab at it. I didn’t have an agent and didn’t have the traditional drama school showcase, so I started a comedy group with a couple of friends.
56
I realised music was my calling, and I am one of those who’s strongly bound by an infectious enthusiasm and passion.
57
The Modi government started several welfare schemes for poor and realised the dream of corruption-free India.
58
One of the things I’ve realised is that I am very simple. My wife asked me once if I loved her. I said: ‘Look love, I’m a simple man. I love you. End of story.’ But I guess you gotta keep saying it with women. I guess she needed reassurance.
59
Every time I read it, I realised ‘Bajirao Mastani’ must be made. It’s such a powerful screenplay.
60
I realised that I could either fight and get into trouble on the street or I could fight and get paid in the ring. I chose the ring.
61
I’ve realised that as long as the youth has the ability to use social media, and their voice is there, people can actually cut through the nonsense and see what’s really going on.
62
I have realised that my time has come and gone. I’m not bitter, just a realist.
63
I have realised it is easy to point fingers at others, but the moment you start questioning yourself, you become a better person.
64
I realised I had to work in something creative, but with a business and global element. And that I had to do it while I was still young and had an appetite for risk.
65
My thirties merged into my forties, and I sort of gradually realised that I don’t really want children. Now I’m glad I don’t have them. Part of that is because I have my books.
66
The first time I played in front of a live audience, I realised I wanted to be a musician. I was about four years old and had always liked music.
67
I keep telling my mother that after marriage, I appreciate her so much more. I have realised the effort that it takes to run a home.
68
I became an actress way into my 30s because I thought that I had to find my own way, and that’s why I worked so much in modelling, until I realised that the differences between acting and modelling weren’t that great. I always say that modelling is a little bit like being a silent actress.
69
I haven’t even graduated from high school yet – and I’ve realised in the last four years, with all the travelling I’ve done and all of the movies I’ve made, that the world is my classroom. I’ve experienced things I don’t know you can necessarily get from reading a history book.
70
I instinctively dress a bit tougher because I’ve spent a lot of time in the U.S. and I realised there was a certain image projected of me here. I’ve always been an absolute rebel. When I was in my teen years I had piercings and wore all black.
71
During my grief, I realised there was nothing I could do for my mother, but I did have a child.
72
The women’s game has grown, but when I was playing at Arsenal, I don’t think people realised how good we actually were. I think there’s just a perception that we just play football, but we’re not very good, and it was a challenge for us to try and prove those type of people wrong.
73
After the baby boom of the second world war 40% of the population were under 25, and it was London that realised they needed to be dressed for their age and state of mind.
74
I think that the European Union negotiators have gotten a shock. They were shocked when they realised the Brexit trade negotiations were not just going to be a continuation of those that happened under Theresa May.
75
The moment that changed me for ever was when I had my first seminar with my history professor at the University of Sussex. I realised that history would answer all the questions I had spent my life asking. It was an extraordinary moment.
76
In the beginning, I got different kind of roles, and then I realised it’s great to be that way. And that thought is always there before signing a film.
77
Because I’ve been so bad at looking after myself, how would I ever look after a kid? But the old cliche applied: they handed her to me, and my world turned upside down – and I realised I was now going to be vulnerable in more ways than I expected.
78
I sort of got into Westerns… It was a sort of desperation move, really. I had several pictures that didn’t go very well, and I just realised that I would have to try something else.
79
Bike riding requires permanent sacrifice. It means training 11 months out of 12 and 110 days of racing, whatever the weather conditions. Early in life, I realised I did not have intellectual potential, so I dedicated myself to cycling.
80
When I realised that TV would be my playground, I decided to be content with what I had. I gave it my all.
81
One of the things I realised as I learned to manage a rehearsal room is that the best idea always has to win, and it doesn’t matter where the idea comes from.
82
I never realised ‘The Return’ would take so long to make – it was a very tough ‘political experience,’ and the post production in L.A. seemed to go on forever.
83
I used to think I was a big star. And I used to think that the TV industry, Balaji, and my show will not survive without me. But then I realised that you cannot be bigger than your work.
84
I realised you could become fat and bald as a director and still remain employable.
85
I have realised that it has become essential to promote your film. God forbid, if a film doesn’t run, I shouldn’t be blamed for that.
86
I have realised how exciting and easy it is to be a time traveller by looking at paintings and films and architecture and playing music or listening to it. I don’t think you necessarily have to live in the present all the time.
87
When my mother was dying, I cooked for her. One of the things I realised was that the smell and look of the food was key. I concentrated on how it looked on the plate. Even if the amount was small, it gave her a nourishment of a different kind.
88
When I came to Mumbai, I realised an individual should be versatile, and in playback singing you have different genres where you can explore yourself.
89
I used to take formal notes in lines of blue, and underline the key words in red, and I realised I needed only the key words and the idea. Then to bring in connections, I drew arrows and put in images and codes. It was a picture outside my head of what was inside my head – ‘mind map’ is the language my brain spoke.
90
We were raised very colour blind. I had gone to school and to camp for so long with white people, I think I was like 15 years old before I realised I was black.
91
Lately, I have realised that when you play at the highest level, you have to play according to what the team demands.
92
I have seen lot of ups and downs in life; I have realised that nothing is permanent in life.
93
Pakistan never valued Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan saab until English songwriter Peter Gabriel started collaborating with him. After that, the country suddenly realised that they have an amazing talent. This is the story of a lot of artistes there.
94
When I started to write, I realised that you need a bit of both: the overall context as well as the individual’s experience.
95
My first show was in Patkar Hall next to Bombay Hospital. It was a total flop. I was so nervous standing in front of all those people that I completely froze. I forgot all my lines and the audience booed me off the stage. I realised that day that you have to earn the audience’s appreciation. They aren’t fools.
96
I realised I wanted to make clothing which was as universal as jeans and T-shirts.
97
I have realised the importance of finding the right nutrition for our pets.
98
I’ve never really been star struck. I was a little bit taken aback when I was doing a chat show recently and I was sat in the make-up chair chatting to a guy say next to me but I couldn’t look round and see who it was, it was only when I got up I realised it had been Bryan Adams I’d been talking to!
99
I realised I could run after finding out that my dad used to run and it gave me the morale that if he did it then maybe I could also run.
100
Over time I realised that the most important thing is not the system but the players you have. Then you make a system for them.
101
When I was in the hospital, everyone was worried for me, and I realised that I had to do something in my life so that people would stop looking at me with pity. I spoke to my elder brother and my coach about climbing the Everest, and they encouraged me.
102
I have realised what my pitch is, and I’m in this industry for the pure reason that I love acting.
103
So what I do now is to pre-empt that by making the up into a virtue, and telling funny stories about how crap I am before people have a chance to notice it for themselves and think maybe I haven’t realised.
104
I have grown up on a staple diet of love stories. But, soon I realised it is not so rosy or divine. It is painful, selfish and ugly. Love is the biggest curse of this generation!
105
In loving his own productive, generative, generous love, God loves all those ways in which that love can be realised in creation.
106
I realised a little bit to my astonishment that I can give a lecture for a thousand people, and there will be this tumultuous applause, so, you know, I have the feeling well, it can’t be all that bad.
107
I have realised that it’s important to dedicate time to a film and role, no matter how big or small it is.
108
I realised how big the Galatasaray community is after arriving at the airport. I am very happy and proud that I will play for such a big club.
109
I hadn’t realised what an institution ‘Doctor Who’ is.
110
When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.
111
I have realised more and more that great companies, founded for a long-term purpose, such as Google or Facebook or SpaceX, may do more good in the world than any other vehicle that we have.
112
I realised I had an issue with my mobile phone use when a friend started explaining the virtues of the Fast 800 diet and, while still engaged in the conversation, I pulled out my phone and ordered the book before they had finished their sentence.
113
I have realised acting is my heartbeat and my lifeline.
114
While I was writing Wild Swans I thought the famine was the result of economic mismanagement but during the research I realised that it was something more sinister.
115
When I first started in telly, I had a lot of negative comments… but then I suddenly realised I couldn’t be anyone else and actually the bits where I mess up or I’m just me seem to be the things that work.
116
I realised that we’re all equal – it’s all about helping each other.
117
I think that my parents’ divorce gave me a very strong sense of self-reliance and independence. I realised that I needed to make sure I could support myself because you don’t know what’s going to happen in the future.
118
I’d always maintained that much of the anarchy and craziness of the early Internet had a lot to do with the fact that governments just hadn’t realised it was there.
119
Everything is entertainment; criticism is now entertainment and it seems that the French directors have woken up one day and suddenly realised that they were not backed up any more.
120
I realised that I had always been writing things that other people wanted me to write and not what I really wanted to write, so I felt like I was losing my way.
121
I remember a nightfall from childhood, far from home and off the known track: I’d been walking with some older boys, but they ran off and left me, and as darkness hurried in, I suddenly realised how far from home I was.
122
I started in ’69 to have psychoanalysis, and I realised very soon that I was changing, and that’s I think why my movies were changing. They became much more open to dialogue.
123
I don’t really want to go into it, because whenever I say anything about my past now, it becomes a pissing match… but I realised that I had acquiesced, in my 40s, to an idea of ‘You know what, maybe this thing that you wanted in your life, maybe it just wasn’t important.’
124
I realised that if I wanted to act, I needed to join theatre where I could improve my acting skills first and also show my talent.
125
Genuinely, the first gig I did when I was 18, it felt like the world shifted. I realised that I had stumbled upon a mechanism through which you could view life.
126
I’ve realised that my strength is writing around people.
127
I gave up the idea of having a career when I was 24. Sounds glamorous, but I’ve been doing things since then, and part of those adventures was to make films because I realised I was actually quite good at it and I enjoyed it.
128
The communist model does not work economically, we all realised that, but the capitalist model in the modern world also looks to be unsustainable.
129
I have realised that when you start thinking like the person you are playing, it gets easy to emote.
130
I would go to school and try to talk to my mates about music and playing instruments and stuff, and they would turn around and go, ‘What’re you talking about? Shut up.’ And I realised that I was the weird one.
131
When I finished ‘True History of the Kelly Gang,’ I realised that Faulkner had not lost his power over me.
132
I started off thinking that I just needed one shot to prove myself, but then I realised that I was only going to learn about acting by doing it.
133
When I won the world title, I am not going to lie, it was an unbelievable feeling. It was like a weight off my shoulders, a goal I’d set myself for so long and one others had talked about. When I got there I realised how I am never satisfied and how I always want more.
134
I never asked to be compared to Richard Pryor. I just realised he was one of the greatest humorists we’d ever had on earth, I knew I wanted to be like that.
135
I realised that I have the ability to play at the highest level and started to work harder.
136
I first became interested in style when I was 16 and I had my first couple of gigs. I realised I couldn’t look like the people I was performing to. Not in a condescending way, but just that it would be weird if I was wearing exactly what someone in the crowd was wearing.
137
I always thought you went out and entertained people and got nothing back in return. But in the last year, I’ve realised that what the crowd gives you is so amazing, that sometimes I just stand onstage and cry.
138
I remember joining a boarding school in the sixth grade. I was lazy, complacent, and fat. Suddenly, I realised that I had to fend for myself. That’s when I discovered this drive within myself. For the first time, I ranked first in class, which was a miracle in itself. However, it didn’t matter to my family.
139
I was working so hard at music and trying to do this whole ‘industry’ thing and realised that it wasn’t for me.
140
We left ‘Byker Grove,’ had a short recording career and suddenly it finished. The invites to premieres dried up and overnight things stopped. We realised very quickly how fickle this business is. Thinking you’ve lost it all makes you appreciate it a lot more and it sticks with you.
141
I have realised that life is never perfect.
142
When I realised I had a facility for humour, I latched on to it, and it gave me confidence and I built my personality around it. So I subconsciously made myself become the funny one so that would be my label rather than the ginger one or the red-faced one.
143
I am excited by and impressed with Anthony Joshua, but Anthony has a long way to go. At first, I thought Anthony was similar to a Frank Bruno figure, but after a few fights, I realised he’s nothing like Frank Bruno. He’s very athletic.
144
‘Masoom’ was like a picnic for all of us. We kids just wanted to have fun acting in the film. We never realised when the film was completed. When we did, we realised the party was over.
145
I have realised that TV is extremely gratifying in the sense that people see you in their houses, and they get very attached to you.
146
Acting is no longer a taboo. The stigma has gone because people have realised that it’s a perfectly valid career choice.
147
Eventually, I realised that I wanted to try to create something myself, and that’s what writing novels is. Not because I wanted to put myself in front of the world, but because I wanted to create something that would go out into the world.
148
I thought my father had forgotten about me. But I realised that he missed me as much as I missed him.
149
At a Metro station, I got called out by my character name – Meera – and I realised that I had started responding to that quite intuitively. It was quite a funny moment.
150
You dream about winning since a kid and when you get that first win it took some time to realise it. But once I realised it, it was so cool.
151
I studied B.Sc electronics to be an engineer and later did masters in communication and advertising. I loved engineering for what it could accomplish to make our lives easier. But, I realised that it was not my passion.
152
When I realised that what I do really well is play women who are tough and vulnerable, it was a moment of clarity. Many female characters either have one trait or the other, but I play both. I don’t need to play characters who are like me. I can just do that with my life.
153
I do have a touch of OCD, and I used to obsess about research. But I’m better than I was. Gone are the days when I would drive to a set of traffic lights to find out if you could turn left. I finally realised it didn’t matter. A book will not stand or fall on whether or not there’s a branch of Starbucks in Brixton.
154
I found out when I was 18 that Dad had left my mother and the family before he realised he was ill and then died. When I asked Mum about it, she just sort of shrugged it off and said she’d thought I knew about it all along. Of course I hadn’t, though I’m sure she must have been desperately unhappy at the time.
155
I was probably 13 or 14 when I realised I had a chance to make it. That’s when I realised that a bit of education had to be sacrificed in order to become a footballer.
156
I realised how rich I had become and I asked myself, ‘Do I really want to be the richest person in the cemetery?’
157
Nanda and I never discussed work. Our work never came in the way of our friendship. We were both down-to-earth and very Indian. Both of us attempted glamorous roles but soon realised that it’s better to play characters that were close to our personalities.
158
My detractors are only accusing me of blowing up cars. What they have not realised is that my films have the potential to cross language barriers. New avenues have opened for Hindi films, and I’m proud and happy about it.
159
I thought my life was mapped out. Research, living in the forest, teaching and writing. But in ’86 I went to a conference and realised the chimpanzees were disappearing. I had worldwide recognition and a gift of communication. I had to use them.
160
I realised that you could easily turn any room into a cinema with a projector, so I went on and on at my parents for one. They eventually got me a projector for Christmas when I was ten, and I realised I’d made a ridiculous mistake – I’d forgotten to say ‘movie’ projector; I got a still one.
161
When I read about Joyce, I realised that there was no eight-till-one in his life: it was 24 hours a day for him.
162
One day, my mum bought me this music production software for my computer, and I started making beats… I realised it was more like production than a video game, but it was a video game when I was playing it. That’s how I got into music production.
163
Acting was not on my radar ever, but after shooting my first film, I have realised that this is my calling.
164
It’s not me being rude or disrespectful but as I’ve got older I’ve realised I can question people or ask why. Maybe in the past I’ve been scared to ask them or scared of the reaction of what I would get back.
165
I realised at 13 or 14 when I said, OK, I wanted to be professional racing driver, there wasn’t anyone to look up to that I could aspire to or get inspiration from. But that didn’t stop me.
166
Very early in my life, I realised that it is okay getting rejected. Sometimes, we take rejection too personally.
167
I realised that you can never legislate away from piracy. Laws can definitely help, but it doesn’t take away the problem. The only way to solve the problem was to create a service that was better than piracy and at the same time compensates the music industry – that gave us Spotify.
168
I worked on live studio drama, which was one weird aberration in the 1980s. I worked on the ‘Battle of Waterloo,’ and my job was to reload the Brown Bess muskets – the only time the audience realised it was live was when somebody leant on a button and plunged the whole studio into blackout.
169
After I won Miss India, I realised I do not like failing. I just like being the best. I hate being a loser. So I just have to keep winning.
170
Midway, when I was working full-fledged on TV, I realised I was loving it. I didn’t have a manger, or anyone promoting me. I never went to ask for work, it came to me. I never asked for it, and it’s not an ego thing. I thought if any director find me fit, he or she will offer it to me.
171
Drama made me happy. Being on stage made me feel alive. But I did what a lot of people do, and that’s follow this path of leaving school and going to university. It was only at university that I realised the only thing that would make me a satisfied man was to do what I loved.
172
As a five-year-old in Berlin in 1965, I didn’t know that funny women existed. It wasn’t until I got back to England that I realised women could be funny.
173
I realised that you can go through times of extreme happiness, but if that happiness is not coming from a deeply rooted place, you will also be going through extreme lows of sadness.
174
The moment I realised anyone could be watching – and this is going to sound so name-droppy – was when Ricky Martin reached out to me on Coming Out Day 2012. The Internet has this massive potential, and you can never know the effect you might have on others by just being yourself.
175
I realised that you have to be honest. When you’re being open, that’s when people connect with you. You just have to be yourself.
176
I got involved in the Surrey Country youth theatre which led me to go to drama school where I realised that this was going to have to be my career, and I was really lucky to get big breaks early on.
177
Being solo really lends itself to different interpretations – and everything is in the moment and on a whim. I never realised how far out you can go when you are by yourself.
178
Weight used to be an issue. I was always fat as a child. And everyone used to tell me, ‘You’ve got such a pretty face; why don’t you lose some weight?’ Over the years I’ve realised that my body is a certain type, and I have learned to accept it.
179
When I was 18 and not sure whether I wanted to be an actor, I realised that a playwright has no voice without an actor. That’s my reason for acting: to get that character as right as possible for my writer. And I have never changed my philosophy.
180
I could have easily carved out a niche, but I realised that Saira Banu the actress can be replaced, but nobody can substitute my duty towards my family.
181
When I wrote ‘Dear Fatty,’ I realised that sitting and writing alone is an absolute joy.
182
Music can describe emotions far more accurately than words ever can. As soon as I realised that, I knew music was where I wanted to be.
183
I think that was my biggest fear – censoring myself and putting myself into a cookie cutter to be representative. But I think what I realised is we don’t need that.
184
The first record I bought was a Carl Perkins record, because I saw him at The Festival at Sandpoint, Idaho. I loved Elvis and I found out that he wrote ‘Blue Suede Shoes’… so connecting that experience of going to see him play was pretty awesome. That’s when I realised I wanted to play guitar.
185
I don’t lose my temper. I used to, but I realised I would probably die of a brain hemorrhage. So I’ve governed myself not to mind about things. I have no road rage or anything like that. Because it’s life-shortening. And also, there’s no need for it; it uses up energy.
186
I realised to keep improving, I needed to play more. It wasn’t easy not getting many chances, but I knew I just had to keep working hard in training and take the opportunities when they came.
187
Being a display pilot is probably the thing I’ve been most proud of in my life. Don’t really fly anymore now though. I have three small children and as most of my friends were killed in different accidents, I realised that it was probably just a matter of time before I went that way.
188
I didn’t fit in anywhere when I grew up, but I was always American, so to survive, I created this ‘ideal America.’ Finally I came to the U.S. and realised, ‘Oh, I don’t belong here, either.’
189
There was a period when I’d just come out of college where I’d been playing classical guitar and I suddenly realised that it wasn’t what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
190
Earlier, I thought it would be better for an actress to marry a businessman or a person from other profession, as it offers more stability. But then I realised that if I marry someone who doesn’t belong to the same industry , he wouldn’t understand my erratic schedules and also the norms of the glamour industry.
191
The biological task of science is to provide the fully developed human individual with as perfect a means of orientating himself as possible. No other scientific ideal can be realised, and any other must be meaningless.
192
I’ve realised that nothing that happens is so grim that life can’t go on. Life always goes on, no matter what. Even in the grimmest situation, I see hope.
193
I am a fellow commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. My husband used to be a lecturer at Leeds University, and we lived in Yorkshire for 11 years. When he gave up his job, we realised we could live wherever we liked.
194
I’m a fairly mature woman, and I’ve realised that I’m not going to grow if I keep thinking, ‘The other heroine in the film is so much better than me.’ I would rather take inspiration from them.
195
Provocative… I used to be defensive about it, but in the end, I realised it’s exactly right. It’s what we’re trying to do – to provoke thought and discussion and, you know, shake people up to start thinking about things in a different way. I’m interested in messing with what they think is the norm.
196
I wanted to be a complete person and realised that the well-being of mental health is extremely important in achieving that.
197
I originally wanted to be an opera singer. I studied classical voice at the University of Washington but soon realised I didn’t have the instrument or the discipline. The road for opera singers is more difficult than for actors.
198
When I had the idea for ‘Shopaholic’, it was as though a light switched on. I realised I actually wanted to write comedy. No apologies, no trying to be serious, just full-on entertainment. The minute I went with that and threw myself into it, it felt just like writing my first book again – it was really liberating.
199
I started writing sketches when I was 13. I liked Vic Reeves, Fry and Laurie, and Paul Merton, and I thought you could just send sketches to the BBC, and they’d go, ‘Great. We’ll put these on telly.’ But I gradually realised that you either had to go to university and join a club, or do standup.
200
I would straighten and dye my hair. I’d wear blue contacts to school. I got to a point when I was 16 and I realised this isn’t me and this isn’t who I am and I just cut that all out. I really owned myself and who I was.
201
It wasn’t until I realised that I could actually take nice photographs that I started to become passionate about it. I then got a few jobs working for magazines in London, and I would get terribly excited and intense about doing a job and taking photographs and looking through the lens to capture something amazing.
202
I realised I owned eight pink suits, which I did not need.
203
My parents always used to ask me to settle down, and I could never understand that term. However, after marriage, I have finally realised the importance of having a companion.
204
I’ve often sat down with people talking about a film I’ve been in, and they haven’t realised I was in it.
205
Belgian shepherds are hard work, but I realised that they were still easier than most grown men.
206
I always wanted to be a golfer, only I realised that if I’d played golf I would have been skint.
207
When I got the script for ‘The Art of Seduction,’ I realised I’d never been in a comedy, so I decided to experiment. What the character went through could never happen in my own life.
208
Some women can go 12 cycles of IVF and not have a problem. They love babies. They want to have a baby – it’s all encompassing. I did it just three times and then I was out. I realised that I didn’t want a child.
209
I used to think that if I did my very best work, then everyone would love it, but I’ve realised that not everybody thinks the same things are good. It took me 30 years even to begin to see that.
210
I have realised there are so many stories which can be told beautifully on screen. It’s important to be part of such films.
211
In tennis, a lot of parents are accused of driving their kids into tennis. I would say I’m the opposite: I drove my parents into it. They didn’t take it that seriously until I was about 11 or 12 years old, when they realised I had an opportunity to go pro.
212
We have to acknowledge peace is in danger and mankind still has not realised the priority to be given to world dialogue versus armed contradiction and bloodshed.
213
Unemployed people should be treated as potential to be realised, not a problem to be solved.
214
I briefly did therapy, but after a while, I realised it is just like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can’t fix the weather – you just have to get on with it.
215
I suppose I should have realised that the very fact I was still playing for United at 38 years old was a sign that there was not enough pressure on us senior players from those coming into the side.
216
No one knows what they’re doing. I remember going into an interview with a big star and I was nervous. Then I realised they were more nervous. I realised I was the one with the power because I was the one asking the questions.
217
Just getting auditions was rough. But also just learning how to act – when I did my first role, in a film I did which was a favour to a friend, I realised I was really bad at it.
218
You need a stubborn belief in an idea in order to see it realised.
219
In the 11 years I’ve worked in films, I’ve realised that no one is indispensable, and that has actually been very comforting to know.
220
I realised my whole focus each year is about the Tour de France.
221
The first time I was in London, I went to an English greasy spoon to get some breakfast and realised that all the waiters were speaking Italian. That’s when it hit me what an international city this is.
222
I’ve always had a passion for dancing, and I wasn’t lucky enough to go to stage school, so when I got onto the show, I was like a kid in a sweet shop. I went into it just to have fun. The support was overwhelming, to say the least. It wasn’t until the end of the show that I realised how much I really wanted to win it.
223
I’ve realised I can be happy.
224
It’s only when I faced the camera that I realised how confident I was on screen!
225
It was only after I made my Duleep Trophy debut did I think I had a realistic chance to play for India. I scored a double hundred, and I realised that I had the potential to play for my country because I played the best bowlers in the country at that time.
226
I don’t like doing things by halves, and I realised you can’t do stand-up comedy part-time.
227
I love fruit. One of my earliest memories is climbing trees for figs, and I once got stuck in one when I was six. I could see the biggest, juiciest fig and I climbed up and got it and ate it right there, sitting on a branch. Then I realised I couldn’t get down.
228
My father came to Hyderabad to become an actor, took an acting course, and realised he was camera conscious.
229
My first ambition was musical theatre, but I realised quite early on that I wouldn’t make the grade.
230
People often ask me when I realised that I was different. Some people seem surprised that it’s a question that I cannot answer. I was never told that I was different. I was always just Sinead; I was just like my dad.
231
As Irving Good realised in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a ‘singularity.’
232
It’s really weird to be playing chords again. Haven’t played chords for a long time. I realised I haven’t played chord changes since OK Computer and stuff like that.
233
I don’t like vampire movies or zombie movies. I went to see ‘I Am Legend’ with an ex-girlfriend the other day, and I immediately realised it was a zombie movie! You know what I mean? There are certain rules, and those rules are things that you’ve seen many times.
234
I’d not really ever expected to play anything like ‘Hamlet.’ I hadn’t seen myself as a natural Hamlet, whatever a natural Hamlet is, and I quickly realised there is no such thing.
235
‘The Secret River’ began because, at the age of 50, I suddenly realised I knew nothing about how my own family had got its foothold in Australia.
236
I didn’t know I had a fan base on the other side of the border. I thought that since actor Ali Zafar is from Pakistan, the fans might have mistaken me for him. Eventually, I realised that they have liked my work, and that feeling sunk in.
237
Wind developers have realised the importance of transparent method of price discovery, which was demonstrated in the solar sector. They realise that bidding brings in efficiency, and tariff is right-sized.
238
I was always very quiet, and I think everyone thought that was because I was a good child. I’d sit there in silence, but it wasn’t until my mother was calling me one day when I was very young that she realised something was wrong because I wasn’t responding.
239
During my engineering days, we were taken for an industrial visit. I realised that I can’t do a regular job.
240
We like to think, in our anthropocentric way, that irony means that you transcended something, but actually, what it means is that you’ve realised that you’re stuck in something, and you have this kind of uncanny awareness of that, and there’s not much you can do about that feeling of stuckness.
241
During my own gap year, I learned an invaluable lesson – that I was a lousy teacher. Even though the children I ‘taught,’ in upcountry Uganda, were desperate for qualifications, they largely ignored me. Until, that is, I realised that they wanted to hear about other young persons around the world.
242
By the time I finished my first three films, I realised this is something I want to do for a long time, learn, and grow in.
243
I lived in Bandra East, on the 12th floor. There was a small earthquake; I could feel the building shaking. I was halfway down the stairs when I realised I’d forgotten my laptop, and all my scripts were on it. If I lost the laptop, I’d lose all my work. I ran back up to get it!
244
I realised that you couldn’t use the tools of yesterday to communicate today’s world. Basically, that was the big light that went on in my head.
245
Hendrick definitely realises that we’re young and trying to learn – and wrecking cars is part of how you learn. Jeff Gordon went through 20 something clips in his first season, but Rick Hendrick realised he had to take a chance on Jeff Gordon. They wrecked a lot of cars, but Jeff Gordon has given him four championships.
246
Your health is the most important, and I realised that when I was quarantining.
247
As a result of the policies of my government, black money in real estate sector has declined substantially, the prices of houses have come down and the dream of a normal middle class family for possessing their own house is being realised.
248
There have been plenty of experiences that I wished to write about but found them to be somewhat similar to each other. Later I realised that though they are of similar nature but each of them has changed me in a different way.
249
Actually, after three years, I realised that the opening scenes of ‘Polladhavan’ were inspired by ‘Lolita,’ in which the lead character says, ‘Why did I meet her? My life would have been different had I not met her.’
250
Suddenly, I realised: this was what I wanted to do. I didn’t know how to do it; I just knew acting felt right.
251
I realised from a very early age that God gave me a gift, and that gift was to run, and I wanted to use it to the best of my ability.
252
My family are very, very religious in Texas. They’re Southern Baptists. I left to go to New York when I was 17 and I realised I wasn’t Southern Baptist. That’s not how I am inclined.
253
I changed my mind about being a famous pop star when I realised that it meant I’d never be able to get on the Tube again.
254
I’ve now returned to the business again because I finally realised that I really enjoy the creative process.
255
Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn’t insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.
256
I grew up playing with kids who were the kids of people my parents grew up playing with, and they know me like nobody else. I thought everybody was that way when I was growing up, and then I left to go to college, and I realised that the world is full of strangers.
257
I went through a brief phase years ago of getting Men’s Health then I realised there are actually only three ways to do a sit-up and they’re just repackaging it endlessly.
258
I did B com but realised that it was not my cup of tea. I was always fascinated by animation, and after I completed my course, I wanted to go abroad and pursue it. I used to sketch a lot and was rather serious about it. But all this was until I joined films.
259
I’d read Shakespeare in school, translated into isiXhosa, and loved the stories, but I hadn’t realised before I started reading the English text how powerful the language was – the great surging speeches Othello has.
260
I think of myself as an Olympian. I have had a dream since I was a very small child. And because I have parents without whom I couldn’t have realised that dream.
261
The best thing my parents did was to make me study in Chennai. I was in a school where most others around me were also from film industry families so none of us realised what our parents were.
262
I realised that if I wished to write about the dark and not allow for hope, people would recognise it as false – because hope is the nub of what we are.
263
But I’ve realised that sometimes you have to walk away and take some time for yourself.
264
I’m often asked if I regret not going to Hollywood. I’m glad I didn’t go, because if I had I wouldn’t have my extended family, which is the fabric of my life. Only recently have I realised how special and unusual it is.
265
Somewhere down the line, I realised that dairy products were giving me acidity, so now I am a vegan.
266
I might once have had a pair of jeans briefly in my teenage years before I realised they weren’t for me. I don’t love my legs but, hey, they’re mine, so I accept them.
267
A few years ago, I got to a point where I realised that the only way you can tell someone’s age is how they live their life. The candles on the cake mean absolutely nothing.
268
My father was a classical singer of baroque music, and my older sister was in musical theatre, and I thought about doing the same thing but then realised straight acting was for me.
269
I’ve realised now that the reality of children is you have to be in the right place with the right person.
270
With science and reason throughout history, what people believed turned out to be false. So I like to keep an open mind to all perspectives and learn and become more fully realised as a person. I just feel we’re never going to know what the full picture is.
271
When I wasn’t as attractive as I am now, I suffered at the hands of cruel children and their taunts until I realised that confidence and a bit of aesthetic care can overcome that.
272
In 1955, when I’d write a science-fiction novel, I’d set it in the year 2000. I realised around 1977 that, ‘My God, it’s getting exactly like those novels we used to write in the 1950s!’ Everything’s just turning out to be real.
273
The jobs of manager and director of football are too big for one individual – this I realised very quickly.
274
It wasn’t until school that we realised that we were abnormal.
275
When I entered TV, I realised that it’s not just all about art, but it has a business dimension as well. You need to take care of yourself. I also learned who my viewers are.
276
After many years of self-flagellation, I’ve realised that beating myself up doesn’t get me anywhere.
277
There was a time when I only wanted to show off, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve realised that acting isn’t an end in itself. You act to communicate something, and if you have to use an accent or become thin or fat, that’s part of your job.
278
I didn’t know how to socialise with other people. I went to Harefield and it was strange at first but then I realised I was only here for one thing and that was the football. That was one of the many things that kept me grounded and kept me going.
279
Maybe that’s some of the reason I feel so good today. Maybe I finally realised that it’s just a game.
280
I’m very, very lucky – when I realised I was sexually attracted to females there wasn’t a struggle where I found that hard to accept.
281
I’ve realised that I am who I am and that is it. Like it or lump it. I’m not around to please anyone any more, and it’s a huge relief.
282
I was told I could play at the top long before I realised I could. A few people told me that. I’ve always had a ‘name,’ and I don’t know how I got it, but I was blessed with people in the right situations saying good things about me.
283
There was just this stage where I realised that people were listening to what I was saying and I could actually say something I believe in and, like… why wasn’t I doing that? It’s not because I think I have a responsibility as a pop star or whatever; it’s because I think I have a responsibility as a human being.
284
Mazhar never wanted me to grow as an individual or as an artist. He always wanted me to be with the kids and be at home. During the very first year of marriage I realised I had made a huge mistake, but I decided to live by it and make it work. I tried to make it work for another 12 years.
285
I didn’t ‘join’ Queen. We played together and found a strong connection, did a TV show, and carried on – then I suddenly realised I’d been with these guys for four years. If I’d been called up and asked to join, I would have said no.
286
It didn’t really sink in for me when I first heard that we would be supporting RHCP. But when I heard people around us commenting on how incredible it is to be on tour with such a celebrated band, that’s when it finally sunk in and realised what a remarkable honour it is to tour with RHCP.
287
There are so many girls in school who don’t know about the opportunities out there. As a graduate, I only realised things about the business world after I completed my studies.
288
There was the Cultural Revolution just over the border, and Hong Kong felt quite dodgy. My younger brother’s wife actually swam from China to Hong Kong to escape. I realised in the ’60s that I had to get out.
289
An experienced designer with more freedom to act might have realised that there was just too much optimism in the Ares I concept: that a shuttle SRB was simply too small as a first stage for a rocket carrying the relatively heavy Orion spacecraft.
290
I was dyslexic – still am dyslexic – and as child, I found things very difficult. I think my father realised that in acting and stuff I could express myself.
291
I realised that the idea of enforcing sharia is not consistent with Islam as it’s been practised from the beginning. In other words, Islam has always been secular, and I had been totally ignorant of the fact.
292
I woke up one morning and realised that one of the problems with being a middle-aged man – of being a man in general – is the tyranny of fashion.
293
When I was sent the script for ‘Homeland,’ I didn’t think anything of it. Three months later, my manager rang and said: ‘They are interested in you.’ I read it and I realised, ‘Yes, I do want this.’ Then I got an email saying I’d got it.
294
We can’t any longer have the conventional understanding of genetics which everybody peddles because it is increasingly obvious that epigenetics – actually things which influence the genome’s function – are much more important than we realised.
295
A lot of children remember seeing cartoons, ‘Pinocchio’ or ‘Bambi’ or something that breaks their heart. I remember seeing ‘The Blue Angel’ and it breaking my heart. It was the first time I realised there was an adult world – that adults could damage each other or destroy each other emotionally.
296
Coming out of the Ashes in 2013-14 and the World Cup in 2015 I realised how much I wanted to be a force in international cricket.
297
When I started with ‘Fugly’, I was excited that I was playing a raw and edgy character in the film. After I nailed the audition, I realised that the role wasn’t something I was comfortable with.
298
I didn’t know much about the ‘Walking Dead’ until after I booked the gig, and then I watched the first four seasons. I binge watched them in two weeks, and at that moment I realised, ‘Oh, this is a much bigger thing than I thought it was.’
299
I want to pass on my secrets to people who are going to say, ‘I have realised that I love baking, and now I’m going to make my bread and sell it at the local farmers’ market,’ or who might say, ‘I am going to use the local Post Office in our village to sell my cakes.’ I want to give them that little bit of fire.
300
The journey from teaching about love to allowing myself to be loved proved much longer than I realised.
301
I realised that the ‘future’ is different to how I imagined it. When I was a kid I thought it would be a bright, shiny Tomorrow’s World. It isn’t.
302
It wasn’t until the birth of my daughter that I realised I had to get it together. I had my second chance in life to do what I’m doing, which is inspire people to not give up.
303
I grew up in Samoa and, looking back, I don’t think I realised how wonderful life was back then. The chickens used to run wild on the family plantation and we’d collect their eggs. We’d pick guavas, pineapples, papayas. It was such a normal thing to do.
304
Apparently, in the olden days, nawabs would get bored with their cooks very quickly and throw them out. All of them set up shop in a place called Bawarchi Tola. That’s how royal food came to the streets. I started hanging around there. That’s when I realised food is a lot more than just cooking on Sundays.
305
The first time I met Janhvi on the sets, I took her to watch ‘La La Land,’ because she hadn’t seen it. Soon, we started bonding over cinema – both of us are film buffs – and we realised we share a natural equation.
306
I was hellbent on going to drama school, but my mother, rightly, panicked and persuaded me to go to university on the grounds that a degree would be ‘something to fall back on.’ Whilst at college, I realised I wasn’t good enough or robust enough to be an actress.
307
I tried to join the RAF cadets at school so I could fly a plane but then I realised you had to do all the other cadet stuff like training before they let you in a plane. Then you’re roped in for life.
308
I was so young when my dad died that I didn’t think it had affected me. I had such tiny memories of him, just little glimpses, I thought I had been unaffected. But then I realised, somewhere in my late 40s I think, that probably the defining thing in my whole life was losing my dad.
309
I never realised how overwhelming it could be to be loved by people who don’t even know you.
310
When I was about eight, I realised the person whose name was on the book got money for it, and it seemed almost too good to be true that you could get paid for making things up.
311
I realised when I sang at family parties and Christmases I’d suddenly get everyone’s attention, and, being the youngest of three, I thought what a brilliant attention-seeking ploy it was.
312
I have realised that baby care needs a lot of time management.
313
When I was 22, I realised I wanted to be an inventor.
314
One of the big things that I have realised since styling people is was how many women, size 14 and above, think that covering up in lots of fabric is the best way to dress. I literally could not agree less.
315
I was meant to be an actor, and I realised that only after my son was born.
316
When I realised that I had feelings for men as well as women, at first I was worried and frightened, and there was a certain amount of ‘Who am I? Am I a criminal?’ and so on. It took me a long time to come to terms with myself. Those were painful years – painful then and painful to look back on.
317
I came to the Unites States and realised I had a knack for coming up with rhymes and lyrics.
318
I realised that in my last two bodies of work – the mural and the Chanel pieces – that I didn’t use any make-up because I was changing the faces digitally, and I realised I missed make-up in a major way.
319
I was brought up in a house full of women; the first time I realised no one was interrupting me was when I was on stage – that’s probably the subconscious reason I became an actor.
320
When eventually I started to act a bit more, I realised that circus school had taught me something that a lot of actors my age didn’t have: physicality. They didn’t know how to move. Acting is not all about talking. There is something animalistic about it.
321
I learnt a lot about how to negotiate the camera: everyone had told me an actor doesn’t really need to do anything on screen, but I realised that wasn’t true. If you do nothing, it’s boring.
322
After feminism, I suddenly realised: not everyone has to live the same way. Imagine that!
323
When I wrote ‘Noughts and Crosses’, I was halfway through it when I realised this was very like ‘Romeo and Juliet’… as long as you make it your own, and put your own spin on it, I think it’s brilliant to use other great work to find your own voice.
324
I wanted the world when I was 20, and when I took stock at 40 I realised I hadn’t come anywhere close to getting it.
325
I got a film fairly quickly and felt like I was on a roll. I would walk into auditions sounding like Crocodile Dundee, thinking, ‘This is going to be a novelty for them.’ Then I realised that there are a million other Australians here, and I should just shut up.
326
When you have a child, you think about your personal history and what you offer them as a larger narrative, and I realised I knew nothing about my father’s circumstances other than what he’d told me.
327
I believe, as human beings, we sometimes indulge in self pity more than it’s necessary. Over my life’s journey, I have realised that overthinking about your problems and indulging in self-pity is not the answer to get through tough times.
328
When you work for so many years in the industry, you form your cliques. But I quickly realised that I have to be open to work with new talent.
329
As I grew older, I realised that I could be versatile. I decided to try out a variety of singing styles by becoming a playback singer.
330
After working for a couple of years, I have realised how much hard work it takes to become an actor, and my father has gone through it all these years. It’s draining, both physically and mentally, but he makes it look so effortless.
331
Fashion is a real passion in my family. I never even realised it was something glamorous until much later. For me, it was my family’s job.
332
When I would meditate, I realised I could master my mind.
333
I was 19 or 20 when I was confused whether to take up films as a career. At that juncture, I enrolled in an acting workshop and then eventually realised I was destined to be in films.
334
I took a gamble in becoming an actor and my dream job has been realised.
335
When I was about 10 or 11, I realised that people made movies; until then, I had thought they just happened.
336
It’s no easy task to coach the national team. I never realised to what extent one becomes the property of the people.
337
I grew up in a small town in Ireland and didn’t know any actors. I never thought it was a viable job. It wasn’t until I was on ‘The Tudors’ that I realised it was a possibility.
338
After becoming famous, I’ve realised how overrated fame is. It gets in the way of normal life.
339
There are many reasons I feel at home in the U.K., but if I were asked to pinpoint the moment I knew I’d arrived, it might well be when I realised the British shared my love of fritters.
340
I had the closest thing I have ever had to an out-of-body experience lying in bed one morning. I turned on the ‘Today’ programme and item four on the news was: ‘The shadow chancellor has ruled himself out of the leadership.’ I lay there thinking that’s interesting, then I realised it was me.
341
I feel very grateful for the way I was brought up. I did not realise it then, but as I grew older and started writing and realised the material that was there was very strong, I felt very grateful that my life was complicated and that my identity was never clear but put me in a position that was always questioned.
342
Miffy has changed quite a lot since the early books, although I never realised it at the time.
343
When I turned about 12 or 13, I realised that being funny wasn’t about remembering jokes. It was about creating them.
344
I’ve realised that at the top of the mountain, there’s another mountain.
345
Initially it used to bother me that I wasn’t working 365 days a year. But after a point I realised that the kind of work I want to do comes around rarely. And I would rather wait for it.
346
It was only when I started handling Treasury Operations that I realised all of a sudden just how much wealth we have. That is a huge responsibility, so I decided to get on with it and learn how to manage it, because I am a single child and have no siblings to share the responsibility with.
347
I soon realised that what had happened on a small scale cannot necessarily be repeated on a larger scale. The stones were so big that the amount of heat required was prohibitively expensive and wasteful.
348
The more I read about the rules the great orators used, the more I realised, of course, this is how you stir people’s hearts, and you persuade and cajole and move people out of fixed positions. The techniques are quite menacingly easy.
349
I remember when I became an actress and when people would come and ask me if they could take a picture with me, I would say no. Then my mom told me, ‘Who do you think you are? You are what you are because of them. The day they will stop coming to you, you will be no one.’ I realised I was wrong.
350
I have realised I need to tone down and be easy at times. It is good to be competitive and have a fighting spirit, but one should not go to extremes.
351
I’m playing with music and working on different types of music. But I’ve realised that I can’t really stray from what is my marker.
352
If we had, we would have realised sooner that Indigenous organisations are sometimes not the appropriate channel for programmes to help the stolen generations, because many of them play little part in Indigenous associations.
353
If you believe in something and put it in your mind and heart, it can be realised.
354
I don’t think I’ve had to change anything, really, apart from being more serious and focussed on my drive. One thing I’ve realised is that you get out what you put in and because of that my work rate has increased ten fold.
355
Yeah, I’m the Brit who isn’t Lewis Hamilton that woke up and realised he was good. I got that tag because I was young, flying around in jets and driving fast cars. I always took my driving seriously, but I suppose I enjoyed life… But I’m not a playboy.
356
School standards need to rise a lot further if the full potential of all our young people, particularly those from poorer backgrounds, is to be realised: there is no room for complacency.
357
I realised, ‘I’m not going to dribble past five payers and score’, so for me it was about having something different, and being two-footed was it. I pride myself on that now.
358
There was a paperwork mishap on ‘War For The Planet Of The Apes,’ in that the end credits was simply called ‘End Credits.’ And that’s what appears on the album. Once we realised that was out there, we were so ashamed.
359
When I stopped playing and became a coach, I realised that in the past, all the arguments that I had with my coaches were mainly focussed on the technical aspects, and probably that was the biggest signal that I had to have things done my way!
360
During my years of professional cricket in England, I realised that although the Australians were talented players, tactically they were a bit naive when compared to those who played full-time on the English circuit. You might find this arrogant, but that was the reality then.
361
When I first saw a picture of the crucifixion, I lost respect for my parents. I suddenly realised that this is what the adult world is like – full of cruelty and hypocrisy.
362
And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.
363
But I have on occasion suddenly realised that some men feel slightly threatened by, or slightly baffled by, or confused by, possibly even now, by having a woman in… a very powerful role.
364
Someone once pulled me aside and said it was all right to succeed, and I realised that I knew what failure felt like, but I didn’t know what success felt like. I’ve carried that with me ever since.
365
I realised it is impossible to live with the rules they give Saudi women. Just impossible. You trying to do everything by the book, but you can never stay pure.
366
I went through a phase of deep introspection. I realised that while doing films back to back, I was getting burnt out and not concentrating on quality. I wasn’t preparing for my role and was working like a machine. When I saw the result on the big screen, I felt that the work I’d done was horrible.
367
I have become a bit obsessed with eyebrows. I used to never have any, and then I realised big eyebrows are good, and now I’m an eyebrow fiend. Everyone comes to me to get their eyebrows done.
368
As I was writing, I realised I wasn’t sufficiently extrovert to gather enough interesting souls with tall tales around me. I was no Louis Theroux. But neither was I interested in exploring my inner life in public, in the manner of a Jonathan Raban.
369
Back in Rome I did some acting lessons and I realised I loved it more than anything else I had ever done before.
370
In simple terms, I realised that food is the most fundamental need for a person. In difficult economic times, people’s priorities change, and they might be willing to do something that secures for them the lowest possible weekly food bill.
371
It wasn’t until I left that I realised it’s not weird to grow up in certain cities and, by the age of 27 or 28, for all of your friends to still be alive. I can think of a lot of kids that I knew in Chicago who were supposed to grow up but didn’t.
372
It is true that I did not want to leave Milan. That changed when Zlatan Ibrahimovic came from Barcelona. Then I realised that for me it is better to go.
373
When I was 17 or 18, I realised I could do something with boxing.
374
I first heard African drum rhythms and chants at the movies. Then, when I had the opportunity to go to Africa and visit the villages, I heard the real, raw, true rhythms and realised the origins of the old Negro spirituals I grew up with in the South.
375
My parents weren’t keen on the giving up of school at the beginning to go into singing and dancing, but once they saw I was serious about it, they gave support. I was quite stubborn about my decision, and in the end, they realised it was for the best.
376
I’ve realised that nobody’s going to die if I don’t get it right and that there are a number of things out there, beyond acting, that are very interesting and fulfilling.
377
I have realised the importance of being fit and healthy.
378
As I started parenting, I realised there is no formula to it.
379
I was looking for something to make me happy, and once I realised what I actually had, then I found success.
380
There was a time in my life when I used to plan elaborately; not anymore. I gave up when I realised nothing was going my way.
381
I’m musical in the sense that I can write a song, but I realised when I was learning the piano as a child that there were people who played it so much better.
382
I had long had an instinct about there being a role for me in a creative industry. Maybe I didn’t listen to that voice as much earlier on, but when it had become a deafening sound in my head I realised I had to go and explore it.
383
Everyone knows about Amitabh Bachchan being a legendary actor, and I had this sense of arrogance that I can make him do what I want. But what he did on locations completely blew me away. I realised that I understand the quality of performances even more after seeing him perform.
384
The thing I realised about composition is, we remember most composers for four bars of music. Four singable bars of music. Pretty much any major composer from Debussy to Ravel to Mozart to whoever else – you can kind of hum it.
385
I have returned to the Amazon to thank the people that were involved in my rescue and upon meeting them I realised that their life is in danger. They have asked for my help on a community-based initiation of a tourism project.
386
At an event in Germany, I realised the organisers had ‘The Great Escape’ playing as background music to my test, and I just thought, ‘It’s really cool. I want that.’ It is fantastic to ride to.
387
When I left Ohio when I was 17 and ended up in New York and realised that not all films had the giant crab monsters in them, it really opened up a lot of things for me.
388
As Culture Secretary, I realised how you can use sport to do so many other good things for society.
389
I have realised that at the end of the day, I have to detach from my films, just do my job, and move on.
390
Coffee must be treated gently and smoothed out. I hadn’t realised it was so temperamental.
391
I would love to have a career like Zinedine Zidane. He stopped playing, took some time, realised he liked coaching, and started working in the youth academy. I could follow a similar path.
392
I had these false ambitions – marketing and MBA. I didn’t do very badly at it, but I realised my calling was something else.
393
At first I was a bit indignant about it, and then I realised, ‘No, that’s what people want, so that’s what is given.’ But it’s not in your control. It’s just what happens to you, and that’s what’s frightening.
394
We realised that the safer creative people and craftsman feel, the better the collection they produce. If they do a better collection, my revenues grow. It is not easy to attach figures, but it is what happens.
395
When I was younger, I played as a right-back. I also played as a central defender, but I realised that I could dominate the ball quite calmly, so I started playing further forward in front of the back four.
396
When I first started modeling, I realised I was very different from many of my colleagues, but I welcomed the opportunities my career in fashion offered me and the support from many inspiring individuals in the fashion industry.
397
I took my wife to a really expensive hotel in Dubai. This was when we were first dating, so I wanted to impress her. I had scallops, and after that, I went to the bathroom to be sick. I realised I had just paid £300 or £400 on scallops just to throw it up. My wife and I then talked about it; I knew I had a problem.
398
I went to drama school but soon realised I was terrible at acting, so I ditched drama school for art school.
399
When I looked further into my mother’s history, I realised that her anxieties and her neuroses could be accounted for by facts from a very early age. Her parents, William Henry Jones and Sarah Emily, were desperately poor.
400
One of the great things about working on C. elegans was the fact that it was transparent, and so when I first heard that seminar describing GFP, and realised, ‘I work on this transparent animal, this is going to be terrific! I’ll be able to see the cells within the living animal.’
401
Growing up on our estate, we were all different colours, but we were all really poor. I never really realised that black was a problem for some people.
402
I worked in a record store, but I realised I didn’t want that. I still wanted to pursue a career – or a life – that my songs provided for me.
403
I realised that I really liked to be on stage, and that I wanted to pursue it.
404
In the early 60s, you read your essays to your supervisor rather than hand them in. I was both lazy and clever, and realised I didn’t need to write essays at all, I could simply talk with some notes in front of me.
405
For seven years, I made films in the cinema verite tradition – photographing what was happening without manipulating it. Then I realised I wanted to make things happen for myself, through feature films.
406
I read ‘Treasure Island’ for the first time at university. And I started to notice then how unresolved some things were. Later, I realised that Stevenson was interested in sequels, and I wondered whether he would have gone back to it had he lived longer.
407
The first painting that I realised I liked was ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hieronymus Bosch, when I was six years old, at the Prado in Madrid. I still find myself returning there every time I’m in the city.
408
I realised that if I wanted to carry on with my musical dreams, I had to change, so I started meditating, and I changed my life entirely.
409
What I’ve learnt is to be in the now. It’s something my mum has always said to me, and when I read a book called ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle, I realised just how important it is.
410
I have realised that we are running after things that are so temporary and fleeting – be it fame or money or anything like that.
411
I realised quite early on that, although I wasn’t trying to make a career speciality of it, I was playing slightly asexual, sociopathic intellectuals.
412
The DNA showed I have a level of endurance in me which I never really realised, which makes sense.
413
My dad bought me a camera, and I started taking it everywhere with me. I realised how much I was enjoying the whole process – from taking the images to editing them and developing them – and it soon became a complete passion.
414
I thought, ‘It doesn’t matter what that woman is wearing,’ but then I realised actually it’s our job as designers to make women smile; to bring them the chocolate without the calories.
415
After moving to the Premier League, I’ve realised that I need to limber up and strengthen my body trunk.
416
We realised that art, theatre, and music in Sarajevo were resistance at the deepest level.
417
But honestly, much of the work that I have done has had some impact on me. It’s something that I have realised only later. I also find it amusing that the memories of actors are so consciously constructed around what happened to that piece of work, in terms of audience reception or box-office results.
418
Once I started feeling better and healthier and learned to walk on my first prosthetic leg, I realised I’m not going to be satisfied with just walking around.
419
For the last few years, I’ve enjoyed writing my own stuff since studying creative writing at school, and as I’ve grown up, I’ve realised how much I enjoy escaping into a world that I’ve created myself. So I’ve kept that up as a hobby.
420
I am positive that I would see the end of child labour around the world in my lifetime, as the poorest of the poor have realised that education is a tool that can empower them.
421
All of us play different roles in our chosen career. I play the role of an actor. But I realised I am also an actor apart from various roles I play in my personal life.
422
I think Michael Crawford realised, I think we all realised, once we’d gone the route of casting a very young girl, you can’t really cast a 65 year old man opposite. Slightly different resonance I think. No, we weren’t going to go there. We’d have Jack Nicholson in the lead.
423
I think I got stopped on the train once by a kid, and that was the first time I realised I had fans. He was shaking. I just reassured him that I’m an idiot and nothing special, so he didn’t have to be nervous. It was very sweet.
424
At first I didn’t take football too seriously and then I realised what I wanted to do. I was seeing players get moves; a good friend went from Ilkeston to Luton and that made me see what was possible.
425
I don’t have a story about an epiphany in which I suddenly realised I wanted to be an actor. It was much more a case of the idea dawning on me gradually.
426
We live in an age of innovation, where digital technology is providing solutions to problems before we’ve even realised we needed them. We see it every day as we find new ways to travel, eat and shop.
427
I have realised I do not have any back up, or filmi background, or any influential person who is making movies for me. I have to take this journey on my own, and be careful. For me, if I do something wrong, I am not going to get second chances.
428
My parents have let me do whatever I am interested in. Initially, they were apprehensive, but when they realised that filmmaking was my passion and that I was doing a good job with the short films and the recognition in ‘Naalaya Iyakkunar’ TV show, they supported and encouraged me.
429
There is always anxiety before a competition and it was no different for me today. It was only in the third round, with about 40 targets left, that I realised I could match the world record score.
430
I grew up thinking, ‘You go to university, you get your degree, you get a job, you get married and then you have a family.’ But when I got to the point in my life where I had all those things, and was looking to start a family, I was miserable. I realised I didn’t want kids.
431
I have realised just how important it is to readers to feel that fictional stories are based on reality.
432
Just having the camera, being able to pull back from situations and be an observer, it saved my life… I realised I could find these intimate moments and that people trusted me. That, basically, my camera was magic.
433
I realised as I was getting older, I was eating healthier and healthier, and I realised I didn’t really need to eat meat.
434
I’ve realised what my strengths are and what my strengths are not, and played accordingly.
435
When I sat down with all the songs before recording, I realised I’d written a few songs specifically about places in America – there was this song about Detroit and another about Yellowstone National Park. My dad is actually American, so I wrote another song about that side of my family.
436
As a kid, I was always into art at the same time as computers, and eventually I realised I was making more interesting stuff with my keyboard than with my hands. I really enjoyed modifying computer games more than playing them, so that got me into programming.
437
I realised how rarely women are involved in all aspects of the music making, how rarely I’ve worked with female engineers. That became something that I started looking at as well. How many women can I bring into the project across the board.
438
People assume actors are born liars, but I’d argue the actor’s job is to tell the truth. And I’ve realised I’m not a good liar.
439
I realised that if we were not in the E.U., there were people in the E.U. who were also members of NATO that would veto our joining NATO.
440
It’s just this feeling of when you’re a kid, you have these ideas about the world and about people in your life that don’t always hold up as you get older and start to realise that things are more complex than you might’ve realised. That’s always a big part of a coming-of-age story.
441
By the time I got to the hospital, I certainly realised that I had a problem because I couldn’t write or print at that time, which lasted luckily only about four months. I’d gone numb here and on my tongue and the right foot a little bit.
442
I realised my dream of playing for England when I first met Claire Taylor and then Charlotte Edwards at the age of 11. I didn’t even know there was an England Women’s team until then.
443
I couldn’t wait to be an adult woman, and I’m glad I felt that way as a kid because, when I grew up, I realised I live in a world where the female form is really disrespected, and society is often trying to wrestle the female form into a shape that looks more like a young boy.
444
As I got older, I realised fake tan was rather messy and I wanted to look cleaner, classier and more demure.
445
After I returned from Oxford, I spent 5-6 years in a village in Madhya Pradesh – 25 km. outside Bhopal – along with a group of people working with the communities. But, over time, we realised that there were just too many constraints, and for ordinary citizens to be the change agent was not that easy.
446
I went to University College London and read English literature, then realised if you were interested in story and narrative, film was the way to go.
447
I know conventional wisdom has always been to go to Europe, and I did that early on, and I tried it, but I realised pretty quickly if I wasn’t playing, nothing else mattered – I wasn’t going to be happy.
448
I just used to back my instincts and go with the flow. Lately, I’ve realised that once you play at the highest level you’ve got to take that maturity to another stage.
449
There was a day when I woke up and realised that I had to pinch myself, since I was going to work with Majid Majidi.
450
It is hard because I love Cornettos, so that will always be a weakness, and I’ve realised that bread is my nemesis. I believe bread has been sent to destroy me to the core.
451
I think we brothers realised his loss more and more as we grew older. We actually grew closer after his death.
452
I’ve always loved acting, even from when I was a child. But when I got on stage, I realised I couldn’t act my way out of a paper bag. I was wild and full of unharnessed energy, but I was around all these seasoned performers like Rita Cullis. It was as if they were all in slow motion.
453
I was 10 when I realised I couldn’t stand football. I’d tried, obviously, before this – no one wants to give in to social pariah-hood without a fight. I had stood frozen on pitches, done some running about and shouted a lot, as though I cared.
454
It’s been a dream for me since I was six years old to go to the Olympic Games and to finally have that dream realised is something massive for me.
455
Growing up in Wales, there was a lot of fervour about being Welsh. But the more that I travelled, I realised that people aren’t always interested in where you’re from, but who you are.
456
I realised I’d never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book.
457
I realised that I couldn’t live in a box. It was not for me.
458
So from that first loan at Barnsley, I thought I needed to get into the gym and get a bit stronger. I realised I can’t just be trying to play round people. You have to get stuck in in those leagues.
459
Our publicist at Warner Brothers is a young guy who has worked so hard for seven years with us and when we saw him backstage he broke down and cried. He couldn’t believe it happened. It was seeing him so overcome when we realised how much it really meant.
460
I got into the industry after Miss India, but I actively started modeling in 2010. I never even dreamed that a simple girl like me could act, let alone become an actress. Slowly, as I started giving acting a shot, I realised how much I enjoyed it and how happy it makes me.
461
At that moment of realization I knew that I had been blind because I had wished not to see; it was only then that I realised, at last, that all these dead men, French and Germans, were brothers, and I was the brother of them all.
462
The first time I realised I was patriotic was after September 11th.
463
I had a different impression of motherhood. I was told it’ll be tough but I realised that eventually it is what you make of it. When you see the love your child gives, giving up a few things doesn’t feel like any sacrifice.
464
When I was about 13 I realised girls weren’t going to kiss me because I was a gigantic, weird looking creature from the depths. I was like 6 ft. aged 11.
465
I realised that if you connect with the youth, you are home. Children love Varun Dhawan for the kind of films he is doing. If you can successfully connect with kids and the youth – you have cracked it.
466
One of the benefits for me of starting late in this business is I realised that if acting was the only thing I could do, I would struggle, so I always wrote as well.
467
Once you are a parent, everything takes a back seat. It ceases to be a role. It is a reality. Once I had Ranveer, I realised that I was cracking under the pressure and that I cannot be a superwoman. I had to open myself to learning.
468
The minute I saw the front page of the ‘Daily Telegraph’ – me with my arm around the latest ‘X-Factor’ contestant – I realised I’d gone into a new realm.
469
I realised that a television show on political lampoon was one genre that was missing.
470
I’ve realised I need a gnawing, nagging, anxious doubt when I wake at 4 A.M.
471
I’d photographed musicians before but this was different. Syd was very charismatic, and he had the aura of a poete maudit, which made him the perfect subject for me – I realised that rock n’ rollers were the modern equivalent of all the poets I was so enamoured with.
472
One fine day, I realised that advertising was not my calling. I closed shop and plunged into theatre.
473
My mum used to tell me when I was a kid that I had to go to bed at 7.30 P.M., and when I’d ask why, she’d say, ‘Well, you do get a bit grumpy when you don’t have routines’. Then I realised, when I was a bit older, that’s actually true.
474
When I became a ‘rock musician,’ I assumed pop music was easy to write and that interesting rock music, or alternative music, was hard. It was only later I realised that writing a pop song is the hardest thing musically.
475
I realised I had spent the majority of my adult life doing two characters – Maude from 1972-’79 and Dorothy from 1985-’92 – and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do after ‘Golden Girls.’ I knew what I didn’t want to do – any more sitcoms, or wait for the next great role that might never come.
476
When I grew up, I realised what an amazing thing my parents did. It was such a big deal for my mom, a middle class woman, to decide to leave her children and husband to go and do her Ph.D. for three years. And my dad, who is even more middle class, a traditional South Indian, to let his wife do that.
477
Because we’re playing tournaments week in and week out I’d think to myself, ‘What’s the point in practising?’ You have no down time to yourself and you’re looking for some to spend with your family and friends. But I’ve now realised that with the game so cut-throat and standards going up every week, it doesn’t work.
478
I realised years ago that no one really knows what they’re doing and you kind of just learn by observing.
479
You can’t live your life blaming your failures on your parents and what they did or didn’t do for you. You’re dealt the cards that you’re dealt. I realised it was a waste of time to be angry at my parents and feel sorry for myself.
480
When I was 12 or 13, I realised I was good, but I never knew how far I’d get.
481
I quickly realised that it is difficult to get started when writing a novel. You have this dream of what you want to create, but it is like walking around a swimming pool and hesitating to jump in because the water is too cold.
482
As I’ve gotten to know myself over the years, I realised I’m kind of a sweet, sensitive guy, a shy guy, and communication is not something I’m so good at.
483
When I became a father, all that stuff rose up again from the back of my mind. I suddenly realised how uninvolved my father had been in my life.
484
It was during ‘Khoon Bhari Maang’ that I realised that I can only become an actor and nothing else.
485
Hollywood has realised that we do have actors and are not just mad about song and dance.
486
Del Boy’ is no more, I am not playing, I am not cutting corners or looking for the short cuts, I have realised I need to live the life of a professional if I am to achieve what I know I am capable of.
487
I think losing out on jobs and, you know, being judged on your appearance… I definitely grew a second skin and got used to it, but more so now, I’ve realised it definitely contributed to a lot of things I feel about myself.
488
There was a time before my O-levels when I remember thinking I used to study hard and work hard to please my mother, like most young children. And then I realised I’m doing this for me.
489
When I started writing material, I realised you could take a ballad like Usher’s ‘Nice and Slow,’ sing the same melody over a garage track, and everyone would be up and dancing.
490
Being on the left is supposed to be about unbounded optimism, a belief that what is deemed politically impossible by the ‘sensible grownups’ of politics can be realised, with sufficient imagination and determination.
491
I realised it was only me who was stopping myself from living my life.
492
My portfolio consists of many companies I find fundamentally undervalued in which I expect activism to play a role in the value being realised.
493
Ive been wanting to play Macbeth for quite a long time but then I just realised nobody is going to offer me the role so I have to generate it myself.
494
Growing up, everyone dreams of certain things, and they map out a direction that their life would take. Working with A. R. Rahman sir is one of my dreams, if not the biggest dream, realised.
495
Over time, I have realised that it is important to stay grounded and keep in touch with reality.
496
I have realised I am a director’s actor.
497
What I’ve realised is that I’m happiest when I’m at work, as I am always preparing myself for when the opportunity arises.
498
All great directors or anyone who has a strong vision like Scorsese needs to have a lot of support around them. I think from the very beginning – when we met each other – he realised he could trust me to do what was right for his movies.
499
My father was the artistic one. At a very young age, my father realised I had a strong voice and made me learn Hindustani vocal. I was five. I have Dad to thank for introducing me to the finer things in life.
500
My agent Sue realised after ‘Cold Feet’ that I could have spent the rest of my life doing similar roles. So she was instrumental in moving me away from that.
501
We had gone out on the road in 94 and 95 for a three month American tour, and we realised, as did our manager and booking agent at the time, that we have really exhausted it, and we can’t make money at this anymore.
502
My dad was in the Indian Army. He died in a terrorist attack in Kashmir in 1994. After that, my mum and I settled in Noida. I went to Delhi Public School in Noida and then to Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi University. It was in college that I realised I wanted to be on the stage and in front of the camera.
503
When I was studying in JNU, I realised how students and professors address each other as comrades.
504
When I kept a diary, I realised that it was all moanings and depression, and I think that is quite common.
505
I realised no one else was going to care about me so I started to be nice to myself.
506
Through the auditions and the process of ‘Sonali Cable,’ I realised that I want to be an actor.
507
I was embarrassed this spring when corona came. Everything in life had been so fast and seemed so important and then I realised the kind of stress that I allowed myself to be under, and I was embarrassed.
508
I realised it was very important to show the fans that I’m a normal person.
509
Directing Mr. Mohanlal was a delight. He’s completely there and wanting to know what you want him to do. He’s very keen on making sure the director’s vision is realised.
510
I grew up in Delhi, where there are no Parsis. But once I came to Mumbai, I realised how quirky Parsis are.
511
One day I was in the movie world with its glamour and then when I looked at it realistically and realised my shelf life was over, I was out of it all, setting up office somewhere.
512
I realised that being a mother is similar to being an entrepreneur. You set up a system that is your family and you invest… you take risks and you actually have the most important job of rearing up the future of not just your family or an individual, but of the entire world. That is a tough and risky job.
513
I realised that success and pure creativity are not very compatible. The more successful you become, the more you become a product of something that generates money. Instead of being able to move forward freely and do what you really wish, you find yourself stuck and obliged to repeat yourself and your previous success.
514
I’d love to do a comedy. I always told myself that I don’t have funny bones, and then I was working with Dervla Kirwan in ‘Uncle Vanya,’ and she was like, ‘Lara, you’re really, really funny.’ And I realised I am, and that’s not even me blowing my own trumpet.
515
I realised when I was a striker that when I ended up wide on the left or right, it can be so much easier to get space and face defenders up.
516
In 10 months, I was replaced from three films. That’s when I realised I need to take my work seriously. It’s a blessing I didn’t get things easy. If I had, I wouldn’t realise the value of success.
517
When I got to know about techniques, I realised there’s a lot more to dancing than Bollywood. Till then, I had thought choreography simply meant doing your own steps.
518
I remember the defining moment when I first realised I was famous. I was in Africa staying in the little tent city there by the Masai Mara River. Two guys with spears looked at me and said, ‘Frasier?’
519
Bollywood has always pampered heroes and treated actors as second class citizens. But, of late, it has realised that there has to be space for actors who can connect with people.
520
I’ve realised that there’s art in everything we do in London. Suddenly, a photo of two boys sitting on a wall in tracksuits with a dog can go online and be considered a sick photo. That’s what we’ve done to London.
521
‘Back In The Saddle’ – I never realised what a good riff that was, or at least how much it satisfied me. And when we play it live, it comes across much better than I ever expected it to.
522
I’ve realised that there is no magic trick to television; it just comes down to hard work and being prepared for every appearance and trying to get your point across as clearly as possible.
523
Once I started to grow up, I realised that my parents are normal people and they can make mistakes.
524
Because of my poor writing posture, I started walking in the forest every day, and I found it a potent place to be creatively. It changed me in that it was a new way of doing my creative process, and I realised how much I liked being among tall trees.
525
I realised that you could get into trouble with a dull speech.
526
I had fantasies of being a European lawyer, but I quickly realised I probably just had fantasies of wearing a raincoat and carrying a briefcase and driving a BMW. I thought that would be cool.
527
I always felt that I wasn’t as American as Americans and then I realised when I got back to the Philippines that I was not Filipino.
528
I realised that to compare your insides with other people’s outsides leads to unhappiness.
529
Ever since my first film, I had more producers than scripts. And I’ve realised that a certain project requires a certain kind of producer for it to be made well.
530
My motivation to compete was always about improving one year to the next. At 34, I realised I’d never run any quicker, so why hang on? But I love running and still run along woodland trails and beaches every few days.
531
A lot of men in politics suddenly woke up to the issue of women in politics when they realised: hey, there are votes in this!
532
Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, I’ve realised. You can learn as you go.
533
I have made a promise to myself that I will have no limitations as an actor. I have realised I have to pay attention to the commercials or the business aspect of cinema, but deep inside, I am purely an artiste.
534
It is true that women in Paris never put on make-up. It shocked me when I first got there – then I realised how much I liked it.
535
I had just come off my third consecutive failed television series. I had sworn off doing TV for a while. I was going to go to New York, sublet an apartment, and find my soul again. Before I got on the plane, my agent sent me the script for ‘Psych.’ I read it on the plane and realised it had a lot of potential.
536
I just wrote out a long description of my best dream and realised telling people your dreams just can’t be allowed, it’s too boring.
537
After my mother passed away, I felt as though I would never have a relationship as strong as the one that I had had with her. Then, after a lot of ups and downs, I started dating again – but I realised pretty quickly that I was never going to write cheesy love songs.
538
I think I have become wise enough, because I started at a young age and know there are ups and downs in this business – I’ve realised it’s not real.
539
I didn’t realise I had a speech impediment until I came back to England. I spent the whole of my life working abroad, and no-one mentioned it. I came back to England and suddenly realised I had a speech impediment.
540
As to adding variations to my white ball bowling, ever since I started playing IPL, I realised you need variations. You can’t survive on line and length. You need coaches around you who can guide you to get there. I have been lucky that I have had seniors and coaches who have helped me get there.
541
People may have found it difficult to approach me, and I realised it and have worked on it. I used to be socially shy. Now I have become a social animal. I go out, meet and interact with people.
542
I quickly realised that there is no ‘I’ in team. So I am so fortunate to have a supportive family that has been there for me since day one.
543
When it got to the diagnosis of my knee and when I realised how long I was going to be out, my thoughts spiralled out of control.
544
I realised that what I loved was descriptive writing rather than something with a plot.
545
I knew nothing about football, then someone showed me a film of Petit and I realised how interesting the game could be. He is divine. When I met him I could barely speak, he was so gorgeous. Women will love that show.
546
He was an amazing actor and could mimic anybody’s voice. My sister Katrine was walking past one day and could hear our dad shouting and thought, ‘God, I won’t go in that room!’ but realised it was Nicol Williamson mimicking my father’s voice perfectly.
547
I realised filming in my own apartment that it was nice to come home and have some space. It worked for ‘The Little Paris Kitchen’ but now I’ve learned a lot about TV; you need space for the camera and you want to be mentally sound after filming.
548
TV is so different from the movies. It takes a lot of stamina because you work such long hours. It is really challenging. You are learning the next day’s lines while you are shooting today’s scenes. I found courage I never realised I had. I hope to do more.
549
I realised what goes on in the egg industry and the dairy industry, so then I was like, ‘That’s it! Going vegan!’ and I just kind of went cold turkey, basically.
550
My parents wanted me to be a doctor. So I took up science, but then realised that my heart was not in it at all. The thought of treating ailing people was very depressing.
551
What I’ve realised is that you can run miles, jump on a bike, lift weights, and all that other garbage, but the bottom line is that you get in tennis shape by playing tennis. You build the right muscles, and I don’t believe people can do it as successfully any other way.
552
There is nothing better than playing a scene with John Cleese or Maggie Smith. It’s electric. But I don’t think I’m the sort of person who needs to have an outer ego in order to produce something. I realised that through the travel programmes.
553
I started as a musician. I play the saxophone, but from the age of 17, I realised that it’s very hard to make a living as a jazz musician in Australia. So I went for an audition and got an acting job and, fortunately, I completely fell in love with that.
554
To be honest, I hadn’t realised the greatness of film music till I was exposed to film songs after I started living in Mumbai.
555
If I’m feeling down in the dumps, or like I need a pop of colour, I’ll put on MAC’s Lipstick in Lady Danger. I discovered red lipstick when I did the Oscar season: Chanel sent me one and I realised how classic and glamorous it can be.
556
People have said I’m a puppet, an instrument of my grandfather, but I think they quickly realised that I’m my own person, that I have autonomy in my actions. I think they rapidly realised I could look after myself.
557
I remember, from aged six to nine, I was loud and abrasive and loved making noise and loved playing instruments and doing all those things. When I was about ten, I realised I could get attention by doing that, so when I was eleven, I started writing songs.
558
When you are brought up as a frozen child, you go on freezing. It wasn’t until I had my four sons, who have brought me immense joy, that I began to thaw. That I realised how utterly extraordinary my childhood was.
559
Over the years, I have realised that it takes a great team for a film to succeed.
560
Once I realised what boxing was, I understood – this is the ultimate form of competition. Once you box you go back to the football field or rugby and it just doesn’t have the same spice.
561
I’ve kind of realised life is meant to be tough and everybody is in psychic and spiritual discomfort of some sort and has a burden to carry. I’ve realised I’m not special.
562
When I was doing ‘Neighbours,’ I was aiming to go to university, then go to med school, but I realised I could make a better living from acting.
563
Since I started as an actress in the film industry, I realised the power of visuals and how that can fuel the imagination of our mind. It is very powerful. Therefore, I always cater to my own sensibility first and then to the world.
564
When I was about 12, I realised I wasn’t going to make it as a top footballer, but I won my first British ABA title at 13. From then on, I wanted to be a world champion.
565
Leaving the record companies tweaked something inside me and I realised I don’t have to deal with labels to make something happen. If I want to meet someone, I don’t have to go through the label – I’ll just go to them. I took my life in my hands and social media has just helped me do that more.
566
When I entered the industry, I wanted to work with good directors like Mani Ratnam and Gautam Menon; that’s why I did Tamil films. I realised later that I was not adding anything to the Tamil scripts and that it was a waste of time for me.
567
I wanted to be a pilot, but I was always drawing bodies. When I realised I wanted to pursue something creative, my parents pushed me towards architecture.
568
I eventually realised you don’t have to understand every single word, and that reading in your head doesn’t have to be perfect. Once I took that pressure off, it gave me confidence.
569
I wrote stories as a kid just for myself. One day, some of the kids in my class found some of my stories in my bag, and I was deeply embarrassed until I realised they enjoyed reading them.
570
I was travelling a lot, during the release of ‘Dilbar,’ to various countries, and the song would be played at random places like lounges, coffee shops, streets, and I realised the song had reached levels that was beyond India.
571
My routine is very simple because I realised that the more complicated the exercise sessions are, the less likely I am to make it for them. They have to be simple and doable in my daily routine.
572
I started at school. When I painted, all the girls would come and sit around me. I realised that this was a really good way to get girlfriends.
573
I think I’ve always been regarded as a mentally strong person and a tough character, but it took me a while to reach a point where I realised that internalising your emotions wasn’t doing me any good.
574
Many young players tell you that they want to play for Manchester United or Arsenal. My dream was to play for Arsenal and I realised it. When I arrived, I thought: ‘Wow, I’m here!’
575
That was when I realised that music is the most profound, magical form of communication there is.
576
Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.
577
My whole life was writing, recording and touring over and over again. At some point I realised I wasn’t enjoying myself any more.
578
Life being so short, and the possible books to write so many, it’s good to function by night as well as by day; but would anybody become a writer if they realised at the outset what the working hours were?
579
I was a real sugar junkie. I don’t think I realised I was actually fully addicted to it.
580
My dream was always to win in the Olympic Games, but I never set that next goal, and I have realised now I need to set another goal.
581
I’ve realised you don’t gain validation from other people just because you have perfect skin or hair, it comes from the inside and I feel brighter and happier since I made peace with, and begun to accept, my spots.
582
9/11 changed America fundamentally, far more so than outsiders realised at the time. For Americans, it genuinely was a new Pearl Harbour: an attack on the homeland that made them feel vulnerable for the first time in 60 years.
583
I realised there were no good role models for kids. Popeye eats spinach, but also smokes and hits people.
584
My dad died when he was 60. I was only 17 and I think, psychologically, that had a huge impact on me, probably more than I realised.
585
After you’ve cut back everything else, food is the last to go. I didn’t mind putting an extra jumper on if I had food in the fridge. It was the point where I had an extra jumper on and no food in the fridge that I realised things had gone badly wrong.
586
I come from a violent background. So I became hard. I realised that I had made myself that way to deal with a feeling of abandonment and shame.
587
Long ago, when I was in higher secondary school in Delhi, I read an essay by George Orwell in which he said there was a voice in his head that put into words everything he was seeing. I realised I did that, too, or maybe I started doing it in imitation.
588
I never really thought about being a woman in a man’s world. Then at the World Championships in 2000 I finished 15th. I was called on to the podium just for being a woman, and I realised things were going to be different.
589
I hate chickpeas. I like hummus but I ate that before I realised it was made out of chickpeas.
590
I took for granted that we have free healthcare. But I have realised what the NHS does, and the people within it who keep it moving, the number of hours they are doing.
