Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Wondering Quotes from famous authors such as Chris Rea, Rachel Cusk, Steven Wright, Doug Collins, Graham Brown. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!
1
I remember my first day at grammar school, being the only person who was me. Everybody else was like everybody else, and there I was, tanned, in a freezing cold playground in the middle of Middlesbrough, wondering what on earth I was doing there.
2
Having your second child, in case you were wondering, is a lot harder than having your first, except for those people who find it easier. I’m afraid I don’t have the latest figures to confirm this.
3
I didn’t want to be selling insurance at 40, wondering what would it have been like to do stand-up.
4
As I look back on the day I signed my professional contract in 1973, I’ve never gone to sleep wondering if I could pay the bills or take care of my family. That’s what basketball has done for me. It’s given me the greatest of thrills from high school to college to the Olympics to coaching to broadcasting.
5
Writing itself is a dream. There are days of self doubt and deadlines and wondering how you’re going to pay the bills until you write that bestseller. But it’s still the best job I’ve ever had. I’ve also been able to help a lot of people and even inspire a few and that feels great.
6
It’s refreshing to have some time off from wondering whether I look fat.
7
I keep wondering how to explain the experience of child abuse from the inside. I’m going to try to explain what my world was like when I was sexually abused. The thing you have to remember is that this was the thinking of a child.
8
With so much of what I write, I’m just constantly wondering out loud, ‘Do other people feel this way?’
9
‘Wii Music’ elevates the scope of music video games by moving beyond commentary on what music is – as ‘Rock Band’ and ‘Guitar Hero’ do – to suggesting what it could be. Yet I’m still left wondering: Couldn’t it be more?
10
I’m always helping out girlfriends, and then I’m wondering, who’s going to look after me?
11
What motivates me is seeing people in the crowd and wondering what they’re going home to and what they’re dealing with, and knowing that for the time being we’re their escape.
12
Who directed the video ‘No More Drama’ for Mary J. Blige. I was actually kickin’ with J. Lo talking about some music that we’re gonna put together, and we were talking about great directors. She said she really, really liked that video and was wondering who directed it, so yeah, I looked it up!
13
I received the most fantastic welcome to the Broadway Theatre community. I walked on stage to tremendous applause and a long standing ovation, wondering when I was ever going to be able to say my first line!
14
I like the challenge of trying different things and wondering whether it’s going to work or whether I’m going to fall flat on my face.
15
If you walk away, don’t walk away with something still left in the tank. Then you’re wondering like, ‘Man, what could I have done?’ When I’m done playing, I want to leave it all out on the field.
16
We invest less in our friendships and expect more of friends than any other relationship. We spend days working out where to book for a romantic dinner, weeks wondering how to celebrate a partner or parent’s birthday, and seconds forgetting a friend’s important anniversary.
17
If you’re not religious, like me, how do you explain the transformational power that certain places have? They bring an incredible degree of attention to where you are and the passage of time. You’re looking at every flower twitching, wondering if it’s just the breeze or some magical pulse.
18
I spent many years seeking self-awareness and wondering what I should be doing on this planet.
19
Should we find a second form of life right here on our doorstep, we could be confident that life is a truly cosmic phenomenon. If so, there may well be sentient beings somewhere in the galaxy wondering, as do we, if they are not alone in the universe.
20
It’s freeing to be that person who people turn around to look at, wondering who could have a laugh that loud.
21
You eventually come to the conclusion that there’s only so much you can do with these established characters, and you start wondering who among us will be the one to create the next ‘Superman’ or ‘Batman’ or ‘James Bond’ or next ‘Lone Ranger.’
22
Every kid goes through puberty, wondering what to do about girls and struggling with homework, and every adult has been through that.
23
‘This will pass and it always does.’ I consistently have to keep telling myself that because being an entrepreneur means that you go to those dark places a lot, and sometimes they’re real. You’re wondering if you can you make payroll. There is a deadline, and you haven’t slept in a while. It’s real.
24
I started wondering why it is that people line up behind charismatic leaders. It’s easy to understand the emergence of a figure who’s narcissistic and compelling. But why people follow this person mindlessly – that was the hard question to me.
25
My primary instinct as an actor is not the big transformation. It’s thrilling if a performer can do that well, but that’s not me. Often with actors, it’s a case of witnessing a big party piece but wondering afterwards, where’s the substance?
26
As any parent knows, part of your mind is always engaged – wondering and worrying that everything is okay and calculating all the stuff that has to get done in the course of a day. When the children are asleep in their beds, I can go where I really need to go in my head.
27
When you see young players coming into the squad and pushing you, no matter what age you are, you have to react. You have to worry about yourself and perform as well as you can. If you end up looking around at others, wondering who’s performing better, you take your eye off the ball.
28
When I started ‘DailyGrace,’ I was dating a 26-year-old guy I thought was the funniest person in the world. My creation process every day was imagining him watching my videos and wondering, ‘Will he laugh at this?’ But somehow that’s turned into an audience that’s mostly 15-year-old girls.
29
It shouldn’t be the asylum seekers wondering which country they want go to. It should be Europe telling them where to be, be it Lithuania, Sweden, or wherever.
30
I’ve been stocking up on dry shampoo. We don’t have dry shampoo in the Philippines yet. I notice that here in the U.S., there are a lot of volumizing products, like salt spray. In the Philippines, the humidity can make your hair a bit flat, so I’m wondering, how come we don’t have this back home?
31
All of my close friends are emotional train wrecks. This is what makes our lives interesting – constantly doubting ourselves, worrying, wondering if we’ve made a mistake. Could we have done better? Are we good people? Are we bad people?
32
When I was at the Miss India competition, I was just trying to learn. It was all very new for me, and I was wondering where do I fit in. But it is about enjoying the whole journey.
33
I had to be honest in my songwriting for it to be where it is, and it’s always scary wondering if anyone will connect with that.
34
The English Channel is such a narrow little puddle, you cannot help wondering why no invader has succeeded in crossing it since 1066.
35
Whenever I hear people crying about Kobe yelling at people in practice or wondering whether or not LeBron is best friends with his teammates, I just roll my eyes. You know how many off-court conversations I had with the Zen-Master Phil Jackson in my entire time with the Lakers? One.
36
Every child senses, with all the horse sense that’s in him, that any parent is angry inside when children misbehave and they dread more the anger that is rarely or never expressed openly, wondering how awful it might be.
37
Horror movies are the best date movies. There’s no wondering, ‘When do I put my arm around her?’
38
Lonesome. Lonesome. I know what it means. Here all by my lonesome, dreaming empty dreams. Weary. Weary at the close of day, wondering if tomorrow brings me joy or sorrow.
39
We always had money problems. Sometimes I would lie awake at night wondering how to pay the rent.
40
Does defending liberalism leave you friendless and perhaps wondering about your breath?
41
As one of four daughters, I grew up with an imaginary brother – wondering what it would have been like if one of us had been a boy. There’s no question that there was a phantom boy child in my imagination when I was young.
42
I’m really fascinated and you know I’ve been wondering about that usage of language, various breathing techniques and why in these practices language is being used in another way.
43
College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.
44
All my life, since I was 16, I’ve been wondering where that next job was gonna come from.
45
‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ was actually inspired by three of my all-time-favorite fairy/folktales: ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘East of the Sun, West of the Moon’ and ‘Tam Lin.’ I got the kernel of inspiration by wondering: ‘What if ‘Beauty’ was a huntress?’
46
There is a charm in making a stew, to the unaccustomed cook, from the excitement of wondering what the result will be, and whether any flavour save that of onions will survive the competition in the mixture.
47
You can’t listen to the whole world tell you you’re crazy, without wondering, ‘Am I crazy?’
48
When I write, I tend to tap into this human wondering vibe that could come off negative, but it’s really not.
49
My very, very first moment on set on ‘Lord of the Rings’ in 2000 was me in a lycra suit, six and a half thousand feet up on a mountain in New Zealand, standing in front of 250 crew who were all wondering what I was doing – myself included.
50
Sometimes when I flick through a magazine and see these thin models I’m left wondering what effect they can have on an insecure person. But I say to girls: forget what you see in the magazines, that is a world which has nothing to do with reality; think of it as a cartoon.
51
My brother arrived some months after my father left. Um, and he ah, was thus eight years younger than me and it was um, you know, it was such a time that my mother probably had people wondering was it his.
52
When I give myself over to a good novel, I surrender to the truths fashioned from one writer’s heart, mind and soul. I do not waste a nanosecond wondering whether what I’m reading ‘really happened.’
53
Your protagonist is your reader’s portal into the story. The more observant he or she can be, the more vivid will be the world you’re creating. They don’t have to be super-educated, they just have to be mentally active. Keep them looking, thinking, wondering, remembering.
54
It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It’s my partner.
55
Every tour we do, everybody’s always wondering, ‘What’s Tommy Lee going to do next? What new, wild and crazy thing is he going to come up with?’
56
I’m wondering if I made the right decision about hair and makeup.
57
I think the hardest thing about being an actor is between jobs when you don’t know and wondering if you’ll ever work again. It’s kind of a crazy business.
58
Every Christmas now for years, I have found myself wondering about the point of the celebration. As the holiday has become more ecumenical and secular, it has lost much of the magic that I remember so fondly from childhood.
59
I feel like actors, having spent a lot of time on movie sets, tend to make decent directors, because they’ve been there, they know what they’re doing, they’ve seen it done right, they’ve seen it done wrong, and they feel comfortable. There’s not a lot of chin-scratching and wondering what your next move is.
60
People in Oklahoma don’t wake up every morning wondering what the government is going to do for them.
61
As a kid, I remember wondering why we lived in an apartment, not in a brownstone, and why we drove an LTD, not a Cadillac. Even now, I’m like that. If I’m on the 5th floor, I will wonder why I’m not on the 6th floor. But that was my drive. I was obsessed with my family having a better life.
62
We need to have women in more powerful positions that are making decisions, so when that 10-year-old girl is looking up and wondering, ‘What can I do and what do I want to be when I get older?’ She has the opportunity to do and be whatever she wants.
63
I was just wondering if I’d ever get a visa to go to the U.S. Probably not.
64
I’ve been wondering for a while now if the CEO role is one that I want – and the one that I’m best at.
65
I laughed at Willie Nelson, wondering why he spends all his life on that tour bus. And I look at myself, and I’m sitting in airplanes half the time.
66
I remember just lying in the grass, staring at the clouds, wondering where they drifted off to after they floated over Texas. I never would have imagined that one day I would follow one of those clouds and find myself in Hollywood.
67
I’m married now, but back when I had girlfriends, you were always wondering if they liked you, and if you liked them enough. You’re together, but the smallest thing could make one of you go ‘You know what? This isn’t working!’
68
I used to always sit in church looking out the windows at the boys, wondering if I could make an excuse to go out and, you know, go to the bathroom because all the outdoor toilets. But anyhow, I was only going out to see the boys.
69
My first tic was to shake my head violently. I was in karate class, and I was shaking violently. All of a sudden, I just started to notice that the teacher was looking at me, and all the kids were wondering what I was doing. I suddenly felt really strange.
70
I was going out with a few girls and we were in a local. A girl started shouting ‘Gogglebox’ at me and became really intimidating. I left but I lay awake crying, wondering if the girl knew where I lived.
71
I was not paying attention during physics in high school; I was wondering if I was going to be cast in ‘Pippin.’
72
Perhaps all of us have come to rely too deeply on machinery and software to be our allies without wondering about the cost: the way technology doesn’t fix problems without creating new ones.
73
None of my actions have ever sort of been motored by the search for a husband or wondering if I was going to have a family someday or wanting to live in a really great house or thinking it would be really great to have a diamond.
74
I tweet myself and do all the Facebook updates. It started off with me wondering whether I was showing off and I was very careful about what I wrote.
75
I think it’s useful, as a famous person, to have as little separation between the perception of you and how you really are – because otherwise I’d be sitting here thinking I’m keeping secrets, and wondering when you’re going to find out.
76
The other day I was thinking – because I get a lot of headaches – I was wondering whether the head should be where it is. Because, at the end of the day, it’s probably the heaviest part of your body, right? And yet it’s at the top as opposed to, I don’t, dangling at the bottom somewhere.
77
When you’re thinking about your next product or current product and wondering how to make it different so you don’t have competition, understand the job the customer needs to get done.
78
I wasn’t able to explode, jump, run – not even walk without pain being in the back of my leg. Every time I bent my leg, even in a walking motion, I was wondering what was wrong with me. But I stuck with it.
79
Life’s about ego. So for someone to talk about my ego, as they are writing their piece about my ego, I’m wondering what they’re doing with their ego?
80
I’m incapable of truly relaxing. I remember when I was younger and less wise or experienced, actors that I knew would always talk about jobs ending and wondering whether they were ever going to work again. Now that’s my life.
81
This is my sixth series, and I’m burned out wondering if a show is going to change my life. Don’t get me wrong, I love when people recognize my work. But I’ve given up worrying about whether it’ll be seen by two people or two million or 22 million.
82
In case you’re wondering whether I lip synch, the answer is no… people think so because I sound so good.
83
There is something about hitting 40, the half- way mark that is heady and liberating, it runs away with you and you reach your 50s out of breath and wondering, ‘Where was I going with that?’
84
I’m always wondering, if Bigfoot’s not real, then why does this creature show up in all these different cultures? I’m always fascinated by that kind of stuff.
85
You have to determine what you are and send the messages out to people, like, ‘Hey, I’m a screenwriter – look at this.’ You can’t sit around, wondering why people aren’t calling and asking about my writing.
86
‘Made it as a writer’? I’m still wondering if I’ve made it as a writer. I’ve made it as a published writer of the type of SF that I want to write and read, but I’m still waiting for that big breakthrough.
87
I think, like everybody else in New Hampshire, when I pull up to fill up my car and I pay $50, I get upset. And I’m wondering if these prices are legitimate.
88
I don’t sit around wondering, ‘Why am I here? Who made the stars?’ I prefer to look at the stars and benefit from them rather than concern myself with how they got there.
89
As the evening progressed, Scott said that he was looking forward to settling down, but that he hadn’t yet found the right person. The way he looked at me when he said that made me feel he might be wondering whether I was that person.
90
I always had a belief in myself, and I started wondering if it was founded.
91
I would find myself laughing and wondering where these ideas came from. You can call it imagination, I suppose. But I was grateful for wherever they came from.
92
The protests and pain over the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown had me wondering if we can ever experience the world as others do. For no matter how disputed the circumstances of both cases, many people see what happened in black and white.
93
All of this got me thinking about the history of the westward expansion, and got me to wondering how the exploration of the Solar System would be changed if there were an indigenous presence out there.
94
I think I was kind of melancholy as a kid. I spent a lot of time inside my own head, a lot of time sort of staring into space wondering the hell was going on.
95
Don’t avoid doing something wondering what its consequences may be. Give it a thought, break it down, and consider what really may happen rather than not do it at all.
96
Of course, I’d like to earn Jonathan Ross’s money, but I don’t have sleepless nights wondering when someone’s going to knock on my door with sacks of cash.
97
I can’t remember a major league game where I could make eye contact with my dad. I kept wondering if he was going to yell at me for hanging a pitch or something.
98
At the premiere for ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ I was walking down the red carpet, and they were screaming my name, and I’m wondering, ‘What do I do?’ So I had to think, ‘OK, calm down, one person at a time.’ Everything is kind of rattling, but afterwards, my publicist said I did really good.
99
I’m always wondering: Have all these time-saving devices actually saved us any time, or have they just created a million fetishes and obsessions that keep us from the quiet half hour we should be taking to sit and do nothing every day?
100
I remember looking at my daughter for the first time and wondering if that’s the way my father looked at me. I could cry, because she’s everything to me. I feel so blessed to be taught so much by her.
101
I once did an event with Ian Rankin where he said he didn’t really need to do much background research because his books are set in the present, and I just thought: ‘You lucky, lucky beast!’ because as a historical novelist, I live constantly on the edge of wondering whether tissues had been invented.
102
I love being on the water, wakesurfing and wakeboarding. I’m not thinking about golf. I’m just wondering if my cooler’s got enough ice to make it through the day.
103
I live in, literally, the same home when I was swiping my first bank card and wondering if I’d have to put back the Charmin. We still don’t have a dishwasher. My mom has done all these gardens so now my house looks like the garden shack in the middle of Versailles.
104
At the beginning of my career, I can honestly say there were a few things I was doing wrong, and I was wondering why I was going a little bit off track.
105
There have definitely been more than a few moments in my life where I’m wondering where the next paycheck will come from and how I’m gonna pay rent.
106
It hasn’t really made it easier getting film work. It’s not like I can call up a studio or a producer and say – insert haughty voice here – ‘It’s Parker. I guess you might know me as the indie queen. I’m wondering if you have any projects for me to be in.’
107
Crazy people don’t sit around wondering if they’re nuts.
108
Rather than spend so much time wondering if I’m going to get hired, or is it a problem that I’ve got this black-tar history, I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and try to be decent.
109
When I gave birth to my fourth child, I suffered from post partum hemorrhaging. I almost lost my life. I was lucky to be under the care of trained health care personnel. I started wondering then what was happening to women in rural villages.
110
The thing about Birmingham is, no one spends their evening looking over your shoulder thinking: ‘Is that Nick Grimshaw?’ and wondering if there’s a better night they could be on. Because there isn’t.
111
For me, exploration is about that journey to the interior, into your own heart. I’m always wondering, how will I act at my moment of truth? Will I rise up and do what’s right, even if every fiber of my being is telling me otherwise?
112
There’s a gap between people knowing what I do and really believing that I still do that – and wondering what it is I really do.
113
It’s frightening to think about more sanctions. When I’ve met North Koreans in China, they’ve said to me, ‘You have no idea how difficult our lives are. We live like dogs.’ They wake up in the morning wondering what they’re going to eat for dinner.
114
I don’t know how, where, and why the idea for ‘Defending Your Life’ began; the idea had been bouncing around for a while. Stories like that sort of have to bounce. They don’t come out of nowhere. I went through my own period of life with sort of everything turning upside down, and wondering, ‘Why is it this way?’
115
Census figures be damned: If you choose to be alone, you’re destined to spend a certain amount of time wondering why.
116
I have been working for over 30 years and am always wondering about where I am and where I am going. It does not stop and become a fixed event of achievement.
117
I started growing up in a hurry and taking a lot of the philosophy I’d heard from church as a kid a lot more seriously – especially the Ten Commandments – and wondering how ‘Thou shalt not kill’ could be so absolutely ignored. It took me until I was in my 40s to write what I was thinking as a young soldier.
118
I’d be nervous about skiing, wondering what I’d do if I felt shaky on top of a mountain; but other diabetics do ski, so there’s no reason I couldn’t.
119
I went home every night wondering how to get in the Burnley team. It was, ‘You’ve been brought up nicely, had everything handed to you.’ Is that what people think just because I went to private school and played instruments?
120
We are all frightened now. No one says anything public without looking over their shoulder and wondering, Have I said something wrong? Am I going to get in trouble?
121
I want to keep doing as much work as I can, and I want to keep the level high. I’m wondering if something is going to happen to me to screw it up.
122
A lot of us were wondering, what is Trump really going to be like? He used to support Democrats and have various views earlier in his life about politics.
123
I spent a lot of time wondering about the future. I am curious: when we have AI, and it becomes more mainstream, how is that going to affect the way we communicate with each other?
124
I was wondering if the best was behind me, had the high point of my career already happened. Then I saw what Manolo had done, and some of his best work happened after he turned 40.
125
Very few players want to go home wondering if they’ve folded the best hand. They feel humiliated when they’re bluffed out of a pot. As a result, these players make calls with marginal hands that put their entire tournament at risk.
126
Your first six months in the Senate, you spend a lot of time wondering how the hell you got here. After that, you look around at your colleagues and wonder how the hell any of them got here.
127
I was wondering if any of my faith was real at all, and I started to let go of a lot of things that I had learned and say, ‘Maybe I just need to start over entirely with what I have learned about my faith.’ And that’s what I did.
128
When I was in college, I was debating to try my hand at show business, or to become a professor. I just thought of the risk of not going into show business and always wondering if I would’ve had a chance. Because that’s where my real heart was.
129
At 10, I could walk down the street and see over everybody’s head. I don’t remember being little or having to look up at people. I think I was born 5 feet 10. It’s not that I felt especially tall. I was wondering when everybody else was going to catch up.
130
I think in a lot of romantic comedies it ends with a kiss, and I feel like in modern day relationships, and maybe just my own experience, it starts with a kiss and then all sort of falls apart and then comes together. You’re texting. You’re wondering what’s going on. There’s no definitions, there’s no labels.
131
Where was I going? I puzzled and wondered about it til I actually enjoyed the puzzlement and wondering.
132
I write every day, including weekends. For writers, there are no weekends. It’s just that your family is around, looking mournful, wondering when you’re going to pay attention to them.
133
I often find myself listening to the ‘Shipping Forecast’ on Radio 4. At first, I am usually wondering what time it is, but then, because often I’m on the other side of the bed and I can’t be bothered to turn it off, I just listen and it becomes very relaxing.
134
I played a funeral convention once. York Casket Company pays well, in case anyone’s wondering!
135
I had to know if I could make it somewhere else. I did not want to go through the rest of my life wondering what might have been without putting myself to the test.
136
I always think the really unfortunate thing about the Australian film industry is its lack of momentum. And I don’t mean this in a derogatory way. I’m always wanting it to pick up momentum, and I’m wondering if that’s even possible.
137
I don’t spend time wondering what might be next; I just focus on trying to savor every day.
138
In Los Angeles, as I gained and lost celebrity, then gained it again, I often found myself wondering why I, out of thousands like me, had become famous.
139
I can’t believe that we would lie in our graves wondering if we had spent our living days well. I can’t believe that we would lie in our graves dreaming of things that we might have been.
140
Interviewing Michael Jordan is like playing him one on one. If he respects you and especially your media platform and he’s amused by your college try, he’ll let you get off a shot or two. Then he’ll go behind his back, give you a head fake and leave you wondering exactly what he meant by this and that.
141
Writing is about confidence and wondering what the point of anything is.
142
I think people get a sense of possibility when they’re on a plane, even romantic possibility, wondering if the perfect person is going to sit down next to them or something.
143
Even printed, on pages that are bound, sentences remain unsettled organisms. Years later, I can always reach out to smooth a stray hair. And yet, at a certain point, I must walk away, trusting them to do their work. I am left looking over my shoulder, wondering if I might have structured one more effectively.
144
Do I have any potential as an actor? I don’t know. I’m still wondering. But acting has kind of taken over.
145
I was 0-11 as a starter, and there were times when I walked off the field wondering if I’d ever win a game in the NFL.
146
Isn’t it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?
147
I don’t think I am even that popular. In fact, people must be wondering who the hell Nia Sharma is!
148
If you’re still wondering about details – how am I going to get these two to meet, or whatever – when you’re writing, you can’t pay proper attention to the sentences themselves.
149
The first couple shows I did by myself, I was looking around wondering where the rest of my band was.
150
I spent eighteen months as a graduate student in physics at Columbia University, waiting unhappily for an opportunity to work in a laboratory and wondering if I should continue in physics.
151
You only get so much time to do something that you enjoy or love to do. If you can continue doing it, you might as well, because I don’t want to live in regret. I don’t want to be the person sitting behind a desk, wondering, ‘Did I do it right, did I finish it off, did I really give it my all?’
152
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
153
For a long time, sure, I was letting the pressure of being Rodney King get to me. It ain’t easy. Even now, I walk into a place wondering, ‘What people are thinking? Do they know who I am? What do they think about what happened? Do they blame me for the all those people who died?’
154
I can just remember being broke, wondering if I had any talent – really wondering whether this was all a fantasy – but I had to get out there and keep trying.
155
People are always wondering if I am an artist or political activist or politician. Maybe I’ll just clearly tell you: Whatever I do is not art. Let’s say it is just objects or materials, movies or writing, but not art, OK?
156
Rational anxiety is when you’re aware of the source of your anxiety. Like, if I have to host an award show or talk to millions of people on the radio, I’m going to feel anxious, and I know why. Irrational anxiety is when I’m leaving CVS, and there’s a car behind me, and I’m wondering if he’s following me home.
157
I think that going to the beach as a child, being in the water and smelling that salt air and hearing the seagulls, it had a real calming effect. But also, it was a mysterious thing – I remember wondering what was under those dark New England seas.
158
I grew up being very shy, very much a bookworm, and I remember desperately wondering how to be accepted by the popular kids.
159
A lot of girls in L.A. just stand in the corner wondering ‘Who’s gonna talk to me? Who am I gonna diss?’
160
If you are ever wondering, ‘If I have thinner thighs and shinier hair will I be happier?’ you just need to meet a group of models because they have the thinnest thighs and the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes and they’re the most physically insecure women on the planet.
161
I worry that if I enjoy something – like the songs on ‘Some Nights’ are about wondering about who you are. I’m never quite sure and I’d hate to feel sort of content and get a good sense of who I am because if I know one thing, that’s not me. I don’t mind not necessarily being happy about it. And that’s fine.
162
I spend about half of my time wondering why I have so much in stocks and about half wondering why I have so little.
163
I’ve been thinking about the distorted view of science that prevails in our culture. I’ve been wondering about this, because our civilization is completely dependent on science and high technology, yet most of us are alienated from science.
164
So I don’t know what the world’s doing to me at the moment. I’m just on the surfboard. The wave’s there, and I’m just going along with it, wondering when the wave’s gonna stop and just enjoying the sun.
165
Most of my childhood revolved around wondering when we would be blown up by the Russians. I couldn’t stand the news, I knew that if the missile were launched, mortality would arrive in half an hour, so I spent a lot of my childhood feeling that I was 30 minutes from being dead.
166
My family was always wondering why I ended up playing people who were mentally ill, insane, downtrodden, and a little crazy. I think what they don’t understand is that most female parts are written basically as hysterical women.
167
As most of the population suffers through life, barely surviving, disappointed and confused day after day, hopeless, wondering what happened to their strong and beautiful country, it is in the media’s power to restore, if not some of our quality of life, at least a bit of our peace of mind.
168
I knew that I was different. I gravitated more toward playing house, but the teachers were always pushing me toward playing the more competitive games with the boys. I spent so much time wondering, ‘What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I fit in?’
169
Can you imagine if it was like that: everything you’re doing as you grow up you’re wondering, ‘What is that going to mean if I ever end up being a politician?’ You wouldn’t have anybody except ruthlessly ambitious automatons going into politics.
170
One day, I’ll be photographing Kate Moss in Paris, then I’ll be on Stephanie Seymour’s ranch with her hundred horses wondering what exactly it is I’m doing there.
171
I am just at that stage of wondering where I go from here. I came into this business almost by accident, but now it has become serious. What started as a bit of fun, something to do other than be a model, has taken on a different career curve. I have been forced to ask where that curve is going to end up.
172
It’s often discouraging sitting working at home, wondering whether to put the heating on, answering the doorbell to the gas board, feeling it’s all utterly pointless.
173
You get angry and frustrated wondering, ‘Are there enough parts for women?’
174
I do think that maybe, even subconsciously, a lot of parents in the West are wondering, have we gone too far in the direction of coddling and protecting – you know, you see kids, sometimes that seem very rude and disrespectful. And the more important thing is they don’t seem that happy.
175
I think there’s a lot of naivete and hubris within our mix of personalities. That’s probably our worst crime. I keep wondering what a ‘mature’ record means.
176
Diverting the internal traffic between the Writer as Angel of Light and the Writer as Hustler is that scribbling child in a grown-up body wondering if anybody is listening.
177
In ‘A Chosen Few,’ I spent hours and hours listening to the pain of people of who had survived wondering why they survived and what their life means and what right do they have to survive.
178
Since turning 40 I happily moisturise – I have what’s called a regime – but I’m always in two minds because I have no idea if I’m completely wasting my money. They feel nice when they are on but I can’t stop wondering, ‘Am I succumbing to the same nonsense I try to fight against in other areas?’
179
Some divorcees turn their pain inward. They brood, and they grieve for a long time, always wondering if they could have done something differently to keep this from happening. They make every problem in their relationship into something they could have prevented.
180
I wanted to have more songs with religious backgrounds. The Christmas record has strong, traditional hymns, but it also has a song called ‘Christmas in Heaven’ about missing someone that you love that’s passed on, and wondering what’s going on up there on Christmas.
181
If I’m feeling desperate, I’ll go out image-hunting. I’ll go to news agents and stand at the rack flicking through magazines or go to second-hand bookshops. And then, bit by bit, like concrete poetry, I start to realise that I am drawn to particular things, and then I start wondering why that is.
182
I used to drive around looking at the big houses, wondering how they got there. I used to love biographies about successful business people, wondering how they got there. You start to realize that if they can do it, I can do it.
183
I’m the guy who spends 15 minutes staring out of the window wondering what to have for lunch.
184
I think the record industry has gotten to be more about labels wondering what the new single is rather than labels nurturing artists. It’s gotten away from making a full album of music that someone would want to listen to all the way through.
185
I like keeping people guessing. I like to have fun with them wondering if I’m sane or not.
186
It’s the life of an actor to always be questioning, always be wondering. There is no occupation in the world less dependable.
187
There’s still a lot of investors wondering what to invest in. And, of course, I think entertainment looks attractive when you read the few films that make these insane amounts of money. What they don’t know is they don’t always do that.
188
Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You’ve got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from.
189
You can be going through hardships sometimes, and you’re struggling, and then you’re wondering if you’re ever gonna make it.
190
I’m married, which means that instead of occasionally wondering about men from afar, I actually live with one and can be constantly astounded by the strange male brain.
191
His track record of pragmatism, depth and candor all speak to a person who would find the Tea Party simplistic, opportunistic and misguided. Reagan was surrounded by some very smart people who gave him very sound advice. They were not wondering where certain countries are on the map.
192
I like stories that leave you wanting more, leave you wondering, but don’t tell you everything.
193
Everything about the music industry takes away from you as an artist. They’re always wondering what the next thing is: ‘What do you have?’ It’s a very introverted process.
194
Living involves making bold choices. You can’t always know how they’re going to turn out, and you can always play that game of wondering what might have been if you had made another decision.
195
Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.
196
An enormous amount of a writer’s life is performance. I find myself wondering, at the moment, whether I do too much of it.
197
If bin Laden is in fact publicly killed, then the US military will find itself standing around with its hands in its pockets, wondering what’s supposed to come next.
198
Every so often, you have to do a show that makes you walk to your car with your head down, wondering what you’re doing with your life. It’s good for you, as long as you’re not feeling that way every night.
199
Middle-class commuters in Rickmansworth and Berkhamsted are wondering whether the Conservative party is the party that they have traditionally supported. And they certainly don’t want to support a Farage-lite party.
200
I always feel like I’m coaching for my job. Just like when I was a player for nine years in Chicago. I came in every day wondering if I was going to get cut. This is no different. I come to work like I did as a player and that’s to do the best I can.
201
I quit wrestling in 2006 because I just got lost. My mom didn’t want me wrestling. I was wondering if I was going to make it in wrestling; I got injured in a match. I was 19. I was away from home, living in Florida, and I just got lost. I couldn’t face it, so I stepped away.
202
I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every morning wondering what new strange glamorous thing is going to happen and it happens at fairly regular intervals.
203
Lucy Kellaway’s columns in the ‘Financial Times’ lend themselves to podcasts because they usually consist of her giving a brisk ticking off to some CEO or subversively wondering whether we’re really as busy as we pretend we are.
204
You could be an 18-year-old girl in Tokyo wondering how you could ever break into fashion or beauty, so you follow your favourite designer or editor, see what their day comprises, where they go, who they meet, how they do it… If I were setting up my own label today, I would definitely do it through Instagram.
205
Every hour that goes by with family separation policies in effect is another hour that mothers weep thinking of their children, another hour that kids are fearfully wondering where their parents have been taken, another hour that trauma deepens.
206
For me, the teen years were all about searching for a place for myself, wondering why I seemed so different than everyone else, wondering especially why no one could look past the surface and figure out who I really was underneath.
207
Pressure is a man that is wondering how he’s going to feed his five kids today.
208
I’m wondering how people are so creative, and how many things were born out of and inspired by the Cube.
209
As a gold-card-carrying member of the nerd herd, I’m usually in the artsy, fringy, PBS-y kind of shows that change maybe five people’s lives forever while leaving everyone else wondering if they can still make the ticket lottery at ‘Wicked.’
210
I think music will always be a big part of my life. I can’t go five minutes without singing, sometimes unconsciously. And people stare at me, and I’m wondering why they’re staring, and then I’m realizing that I’m belting out a tune.
211
It’s funny. When I saw the script in my inbox and it said ‘Sparkle,’ I thought, ‘For real? It’s really called ‘Sparkle?’ I was wondering, too, how does ‘Jordin Sparks as Sparkle’ sound?
212
I remember when I started modelling and being the only non-white girl in the fashion show. I was grateful to be there, but at the casting, there had been many beautiful women of different descriptions, and I was wondering why they were not being represented.
213
A good story will keep you wondering about what’s happening, what’s going on, where does this go? Now it’s going to go that way, now it’s going to go that way. It has to do that. If it’s predictable, it’s just boring.
214
I consider it probably one of the biggest honors to be in the Academy. There are only like 1300 actors in it, and as far as I know, you’re a member for life. To this day, I’m wondering how lucky I was.
215
Then, I realized that there is an indigenous presence in the Solar System. It’s us. So, then, I got to wondering what would happen if a more technologically advanced society moved next door to us, the way we moved next door to the American Indians.
216
The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally.
217
We’re all always wondering about our own limits, what we’re capable of.
218
I’m wondering when you hit the age where people say, ‘Oh, OK, he’s not so young.’
219
Once I got married and had kids, I moved away from romantic roles, because it seemed wrong to have my three-year-old wondering why Daddy was kissing someone else.
220
I wasn’t truly comfortable with myself until I was about 30. I spent so much time and energy wondering if I wasn’t worthy, and trying to find people to validate me, instead of validating myself.
221
There’s a hardening of the culture. Reality TV has lowered the standards of entertainment. You’re left wondering about the legitimacy of relationships. It’s probably harder to entertain the same people with a more classic form of writing, and romantic comedies are a classic genre.
222
Sometimes when you meet a musician you are a fan of, and he or she isn’t the friendliest person, you walk away from the experience wondering if you will ever be able to listen to their music again.
223
I would say that many of the characters in my stories do not live in true poverty – they are not out on the street; they are not wondering if there will be anything to eat in the next week. They are people who are at the lower echelons of the economic strata.
224
We’ve got to tell our stories to influence culture, and we have to get more people elected who have faced challenges like domestic violence, working minimum-wage jobs, wondering how to get food on the table… regular people.
225
This baby comes out of you and there’s no handbook. They hand you this child and say, ‘Don’t kill it. Feed it, clothe it and shelter it.’ I never knew what that kind of love was. I remember looking at my daughter for the first time and wondering if that’s the way my father looked at me.
226
My kids are just waiting for me at home. I’m their father. They’re wondering, ‘When’s Daddy coming home?’
227
Writing is the thing that pervades my whole day – I’m always wondering how I might describe something or improve my understanding. I’m constantly trying to remember an eavesdropped conversation or an idea for a story.
228
I think the people who experienced the Apollo missions came away from that experience wondering to themselves, ‘When can we get a chance to experience spaceflight?’ I’ve heard that many, many times: that people got into a new career field hoping that they would be able to experience spaceflight.
229
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
230
I’m just happy that Jesus Christ, um, did not let me lose my teeth when I was 20 years old. ‘Cause I was wondering, like, what if you kept your baby teeth until the age of 18 or 20, and then you lose ’em? That would look pretty bad.
231
If you want it, go for it. Take a risk. Don’t always play it safe or you’ll die wondering.
232
Boxing? She’s like a woman. If you’ve never wooed her, never won her, you always look back wondering what would have happened had you had her. If you caught her and had a long relationship, you don’t really look back. Do I miss her? No, because I’ve had her, I’ve moved on.
233
When you grow up Jewish, you are exposed at a very young age to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and its extreme manifestation in the Holocaust. I spent a lot of time as a little kid wondering how something like that could happen.
234
During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he’s too busy wondering what he’ll do if he isn’t elected.
235
I am wondering when – if – I have to cut my hair. I think it looks terrible if you have really long hair and it’s gone gray. So I am experimenting with wearing it up. Up, with pearls. I think that’s quite a good look.
236
There are times when I think, ‘I’m going to get this part. I know I am. I’m going to get this.’ And then I don’t, and I’m wondering, ‘What happened? I went back five times!’
237
I think Romney’s talking himself out of the election, to be honest. I was wondering what was gonna happen when the Republican power structure turned the money on, and then they turned on the money and nothing happened.
238
When we started out, I kept wondering, what are the rules of philanthropy? And it turns out that there are rules for it. And nobody could talk about that. There is no set formula for this because anything with a human being cannot have a formula.
239
Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other.
240
When I first started, I wore Ceil Chapman gowns. I’ve been wondering for years what happened to the Ceil Chapman line of clothing.
