I must have been one of the least surprised people on earth on September 11. I felt very braced for that. I knew something like that was going to come.

A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween.

My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.

I try to do something the audience might not have seen before. Like if I’m gonna kiss a girl I wanna kiss her like a girl has never been kissed. Like maybe I would kick her legs out from under her and catch her right before she hits the ground and then kiss her.

The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years.

The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.

It’s going to be the year of the sharp elbow and the quick tongue.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.

People are always coming up to me and saying, ‚I heard your dad’s speech, and it’s really great.‘ And they’ll mention some place I didn’t even know my dad was going to.

I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream – I was surprised to find it happening.

A friend will tell you she saw your old boyfriend – and he’s a priest.

Well before September 11, it was understood that with modern technology, the rich and powerful will lose their near monopoly of the means of violence and can expect to suffer atrocities on home soil.

I’m always surprised when people respond positively to what I am saying, given its seriousnessness and strange nature.

He who could foresee affairs three days in advance would be rich for thousands of years.

The Occupy movement is – it was a big surprise.

People tend to play in their comfort zone, so the best things are achieved in a state of surprise, actually.

The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.

At 57, to have a No. 1 album, I wasn’t expecting it.

This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.

A man’s delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.

I had not expected ‚A Brief History of Time‘ to be a best seller.

I know a dramatic role is going to happen, but you just got to be patient, you know? It’s going to happen when it’s supposed to happen. I’m not rushing it. I’m not trying to make it happen tomorrow.

To Sun-tzu and the ancient Chinese, doing something extraordinary had little effect without a setup of something ordinary. You had to mix the two – to fix your opponent’s expectations with some banal, ordinary maneuver, a comfortable pattern that they would then expect you to follow.

Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.

I have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn’t think I could read, much less write.

Someday, the capitalist system will disappear in the United States, because no social class system has been eternal. One day, class societies will disappear.

When I came to Delhi and noticed an insider view, I felt what it was, and I was surprised to see it. It seemed as if dozens of separate governments are running at the same time in one main government. It appeared that everyone has its own fiefdom.

I’m not a fortune-teller.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.

I was out of my bed in one second, trembling with excitement, and I dashed to the door and into the adjoining room, where I could watch the streets below from the windows.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

Sometimes I write stuff that strangely predicts what’s going to happen in my life.

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

Once the automobile appeared you could have predicted that it would destroy as many people as it did.

For me, when you are have people wondering what is next, what is coming out, you are on the right track.

The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.

On September 11 2001, America felt its vulnerability even to threats that gather on the other side of the Earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat from any source that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.

While physics and mathematics may tell us how the universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior because there are far too many equations to solve. I’m no better than anyone else at understanding what makes people tick, particularly women.

A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.

I was enjoying myself writing, because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I take a ride around that corner. You don’t know at all what you’re going to find there. That can be thrilling when you read a book, especially when you’re a kid and you’re reading stories.

It is not scientifically possible to accurately predict the outcome of an action. To suggest otherwise runs contrary to historical experience and the nature of war.

Often I sort of work up and down the manuscript. I sometimes used to go ahead of myself to see what was going to happen next, to make certain it fits what was going to be happening soon.

When I go to a restaurant, yeah, I know that a line is probably going to form in front of the table, but didn’t I always wish for that? Yeah, I did.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what life brings to me.

In the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, it now seems clear that the shock of the attacks was exploited in America.

The secret to humor is surprise.

Starting at about, I guess, forever, I’ve always looked forward to getting older. When I was 14, I couldn’t wait to be 16 and get a driver’s license.

An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.

If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.

Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.

I can honestly say – and it’s a big surprise to me – that I have never had a dream about being on the moon.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.

I look forward to death with great anticipation, to meeting God face to face.

When I put out ‚Video Games‘ in May 2011, it was a 5:25-minute love song; I was surprised when a lot of people said they were listening to it. I was surprised when it went to the radio, without me even knowing how something like that even happens!

I have a deep, deep belief that if I tell you I’m going to crack you with a clean shot to the chin inside one minute of the first round and you will be unconscious, well, then that’s what will happen.

We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.