You KNOW how when you read a book and it BECOMES a MOVIE, and it's different than you pictured? In some WAYS, ACTING is a lot like that.

After a post-Bill Berry softening with ALBUMS like 'Up' and 'Reveal,' R.E.M. seems to be toughening up again; on the strength of the first SINGLE, 'Discoverer,' the band's NEW RECORD looks to continue with the same muscular rock and roll that defined its last album, 'Accelerate.'

I REMAIN convinced that the most VALUABLE USE of time for a newly published author is to write a SECOND book that's even better than the first, and a THIRD that's better than the second, and on and on.

Americans are fascinated by their own LOVE of SHOPPING. This does not make them unique. It's just that they have more to BUY than most other people on the planet. And it's also an affirmation of faith in their country.

When you start thinking about TAKING pictures, sending an e-mail, RECEIVING an e-mail, speaking into your phone and have it transcript VOICE into TEXT and then sent as an e-mail, it's mind-boggling.

If you GO into a bank or a SHOP and you want them to believe that you're going to shoot them, that's an ACTING exercise. If you want to turn to SOMEONE else who's as tooled up as you are and persuade them to put their knife down because you'll use your knife, that's an acting exercise. Nine out of 10 delinquents are frustrated actors.

There's no SHORTAGE of INVESTMENT into MANCHESTER UNITED.

My CENTRE of who I thought I was was never very consciously about being beautiful or ATTRACTIVE - I THINK I'm one of those people who's ACTUALLY grown into their looks.

I managed to get onto 'The Hobbit,' which is a story in itself. I missed the MAIN round of auditions but managed to get a FOOT in the door at the last SECOND - just as I CAME down with dysentery.

You don't WIN TOURNAMENTS by PLAYING WELL and THINKING poorly.