Concerns about the size and role of government are what seem to leave reformers stammering and speechless in town-hall meetings. The right wants to have a debate over fundamental principles; elected Democrats seem incapable of giving it to them.

Federalism should be a meeting point of all groups.

In a way, novel writing is such a permanently student lifestyle. When it comes to movies, and you have to go to these meetings and try and impress people and get money out of them, I feel as though I'm playacting at being somebody who's grown up.

We spoke at endless cabinet meetings about the need to stop the flow of money to the families of terrorists and to the terrorists in jails.

I go into meetings with some film-makers and they literally have nothing to say, they're almost bored by their own material. I'd rather work with people who are very passionate and very animated about what they want to do. People who just want to tell stories.

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings.'

I felt that a lot of Viking culture had been caricatured and misconstrued. After all, they were far more democratic than the Saxons and the Francs, who were exercising really hierarchical social structures at that time. The Vikings had popular meetings where everything could be discussed.

A typical day for me involves a lot of meetings.

Nature is forever arriving and forever departing, forever approaching, forever vanishing; but in her vanishings there seems to be ever the waving of a hand, in all her partings a promise of meetings farther along the road.

I have lifestyle requirements. Photos, meetings, lunches, dinners, facial care, tooth care. It requires an exorbitant amount of money.

You never know who's going to become your friend. Friends are always chance meetings.

I would try to be super-assertive in meetings and, you know, pound my hand off the table, and it never ended well. People would say, 'What are you beating the table for?' It's not natural for me.

I like beating the Bay Area traffic by getting into the office early, plus I get at least an hour most mornings to work on personal projects before I'm pulled into meetings.

Sometimes I'll hike in the afternoon if I have meetings with New York in the morning.

I did a video with Mick Jagger down in Rio de Janeiro. But I played a video director, and that's the closest I've gotten to directing, except Bob Dylan came and had a few meetings with me about doing a video for him.

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions.

There are American directors I'd really like to work with, but I don't know how much I want to be sitting in my house, doing the rounds of meetings with CEOs. You have to be really hardworking to do all that, and I'm lazy.

A lot of people when I walk into meetings are like, 'Come on, let's talk more about 'X-Men.' What's it like to be Havok?' It certainly has been opening a lot of doors.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, thanks to the concerted efforts of both sides, China-U.S. relationship has on the whole enjoyed steady growth. Since President Obama took office, we have maintained close contact through exchange of visits, meetings, telephone conversations and letters.