My novels aren't really generated by a single conceptual spark; it's more a process of many different elements that come together unexpectedly over a long period of time.
Donna Tartt

My team and I have reunited two elements that coexist with difficulty: respect and affection, because when they love you they don't respect you and when they respect you they don't love you.
Shakira

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
Niccolo Machiavelli

No doubt Western civilization has in the past been full of wars and revolutions, and the national elements in our culture, even when they were ignored, always provided an unconscious driving force of passion and aggressive self-assertion.
Christopher Dawson

No one person can possibly combine all the elements supposed to make up what everyone means by friendship.
Francis Marion Crawford

No, the only things which do not bother me are the elements. I can overcome them without a fight. All one has to do to get the best of the elements is to stand pat and one will win.
William Howard Taft

Now where there are no parts, there neither extension, nor shape, nor divisibility is possible. And these monads are the true atoms of nature and, in a word, the elements of things.
Gottfried Leibniz

Nuclear fusion of light elements like hydrogen or helium would permit approaching the speed of light. It seems very attractive to refuel your space ships where the fuel is.
Wilson Greatbatch

One of the elements in the film that really fascinated me was not to look at the world in bi-polar terms of us vs them or east vs west, which was a by-product of the Cold War.
Kathryn Bigelow

One of the essential elements of government responsibility is to communicate effectively to the American people, especially in time of a potential terrorist attack or a natural disaster.
Vito Fossella

One of the key elements is the ability to be honest with yourself.
Bill Toomey

One of the most important elements in teaching, conducting, and performing, all three, is listening.
Itzhak Perlman

One of the reasons I continue to speak out is that the solutions to the counterterrorism problem involve other parts of the national security community - especially other elements of the Department of Defense, State, FBI, Homeland Security and the staff.
John Poindexter

One of the strongest and most persistent elements in national development has been that inheritance of political traditions and usages which the new settlers brought with them.
Albert Bushnell Hart

One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality.
Kenneth Branagh

Our alliances and our credibility are crucial elements of our working capital in advancing America's interests in the world, and they have been eroded over the last four years.
Patrick Leahy

Our community is like many around the country that have, as the gentleman from New York referenced, sophisticated planning and zoning regulations. These are elements that are developed as a result of local community pressure to balance interests.
Earl Blumenauer

Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system.
George Crumb

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.
Niccolo Machiavelli