Happiness is getting a brown gravy stain on a brown dress.
Our plans never turn out as tasty as reality.
One movie I think is just terrific is 'Bernie,' with Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine. That was a great surprise to me - so witty, so entertaining, a true story, and I'm not a great Jack Black fan, but he's great in it. I think it's a gem.
'Beasts of the Southern Wild' was one of those films that I felt like I could dismiss because it received so many accolades, but then I watched it and was won over.
The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them - preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.
One wants to be surprised.
There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.
I once took the key off my girlfriend's key ring so that I could surprise her when she got home. So I did this whole romantic setup in our bedroom with flowers and rose petals. She was so mad when she got home, but then when she walked in, she was so surprised.
The best meal I was served was ribollita, an Italian bread soup at the Castello di Ama winery in Tuscany. I usually hate ribollita, and the people I was traveling with thought I was crazy for ordering it.
It is not easy to convey a sense of wonder, let alone resurrection wonder, to another. It’s the very nature of wonder to catch us off guard, to circumvent expectations and assumptions. Wonder can’t be packaged, and it can’t be worked up. It requires some sense of being there and some sense of engagement.
Working with Julie Andrews is like getting hit over the head with a valentine.
There's so much nonsense tossed around about L.A. and how horrible it is and 'don't go out there' and all that stuff. So I went out to L.A. and I was pleasantly surprised.
I actually loved Winnipeg. Everyone told me I was going to hate it, but it was great.
You want it to feel like a surprise. You want to keep him guessing whether he'll make you smile entirely so that when you do, he will feel like he's been given a gift.
The gift is for you...The surprise is for me.
My sculptures cause an uproar, astonishment, and put a smile on your face.
The quietest poetry can be an explosion of joy.
I love it when people say, 'You're nothing like I thought you were going to be' - which always means, 'I like you so much more than I thought I was going to.'
Magic can be found in stolen moments.
No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way that simple joy could shake you.
I love it when you hear a band, and you just go, 'Yes! I never knew it, but that's exactly what I want to hear.'
The joy that comes past hope and beyond expectation is like no other pleasure in extent.
It's really strange, this thing where people are like, 'I'm not into musicals' but so many people who have said that to me, I've taken to shows and watched their faces radiate.
No one could have prepared for me BBQ on pizza. I mean, both are great. But together? It was incredible.
The encore is the short piece after the program has finished, where the performer brings out something that the audience doesn't expect.
