Focal Quotations

Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by social withdrawal, by repetitive behaviors and by some kind of focal attention in its classic form. Basically, it's an inability to relate to others.

At home I have a copy of the April 21, 1986, issue of 'Sports Illustrated.' I'm on the cover with the blurb, 'Can Lou Do It?' I'd just arrived at Notre Dame, and with spring football underway, I was the focal point of that week's coverage.

President Obama has made a minimum wage increase a focal point of his economic agenda.

As a lifestyle you always being the focal point is innately unhealthy.

One of our focal points going into the game was the boards against Brisbane and to stay competitive. And I thought Benny Knight was absolutely outstanding with 16 boards - I can't remember him playing a better game than that for us.

Nobody gets beat up more than Derek. He's the focal point of every defense we see. He no longer can just come off screens and catch and shoot, but he's a smart player who has learned to create his own shots. He's handled the attention well.

Obviously the focal point on any football team is the quarterback, there is no question about that. And I feel very, very good about Steve.

My feeling is that while there may be a mention of (a stronger Canadian dollar), it's not going to be a focal point of the statement because they are less concerned now about Canadian dollar appreciation than they were a year ago. The economy has had time to adjust and get used to a stronger Canadian dollar.

I didn't want to have two bad games in a row. We had our worst game of the season as a team last game from an offensive standpoint, so it was definitely a focal point for the team as a whole as far as getting in the flow of offense and running our sets with pace and energy.

If they try and play us big, one of the main things we're going to have to do is defend and get out there and rebound. That's one of the focal points this year is rebounding more than anything.

We needed a game like that. We haven't been able to keep people down when we've had them down. It was a focal point coming out tonight and we were able to execute it.

Let's just say I was Coach T's focal point, ... He told me later, 'yeah, you made one nice play. But you didn't do what I coached you to do. '

She's the best player in Section 4, hands down, and obviously a focal point (for our defense).

She's the focal point. She draws a lot of attention. But she needs to look to herself as a focal point. Her numbers are starting to come back up.

You have to fine-tune. We try to go into each game and say, 'Here's a focal point.' We want to make sure going in that things are right.

He is the focal point of their defense, they really rally around him. So we'll get certainly a much better defensive effort.

He just knows he doesn't have to be the focal point of this defense. We don't need him to get 10 sacks. We have two guys that can do that.

Growing up in college, in high school, I was the focal point.

Gabe has been scoring real well and we need that; sometimes we don't have others scoring very well. Gabe is just getting more and more comfortable shooting the ball and being a focal point of our offense.

If it doesn't (target Abel), then maybe they're not reading the papers because, when you see what she's averaging, I think everybody will know Vanessa Abel. She's put our school in the paper a lot this year and, even though she is the focal point, we're averaging 63.1 points scoring and we've done a nice job on offense.

I don't know whether the Attorney General was responding to a question in a news conference, but that's the reason that Homeland Security is the agency that the President has designated to communicate changes in the threat level. And Secretary Ridge addressed that subsequently. I think it goes to show that there's different voices, and, as we have created the Department, we tried to bring that together so there's one focal point of communication as to the threats that we face and how the public is supposed to respond to it, and that's Homeland Security.

Having the focal point of contemporary art right in the middle of Honolulu is an amazing treasure because people are so seldom exposed to that quality of artistic endeavor.

He was a workhorse, on both sides of the football. He ran the ball hard, and was a focal point, shutting down the field at middle linebacker. Missing Renner makes him the featured back. Having him and Mark Wright as the one-two punch, that's still a pretty solid rushing attack.

He wants to stay here long enough to beat or tie that mark. We've talked about it all year. It's been one of the focal points of our season.

We make kids the focal point. Our mission is the kids, the kids, the kids. Take care of the kids.

We looked at a 20-day snapshot in time to compare the margins between how much retailers paid for the gas and how much they charged customers for the gas, ... That margin was the focal point of our investigation.

He's had games where he can show what he can do, but because of injuries, he's been the number one target of every defense. That's why I would say maybe we haven't seen what he can really do when he's not the focal point for every defense.

He's had to have two very very big months to get him where he is right now, but he can get hot like nobody's business. He's probably learned some very valuable lessons through this year. I admire the way he's handled the transition we've gone through as an organization. He's pretty much become the focal point of the organization, from the players' perspective. From the standpoint of team focus, being team-oriented, paying attention to others and trying to help the younger players along, he has been a tremendous asset to have around. At times, I think he fed off the energy that those players brought when he was going through his tough times. And one of the things that kept him going was seeing that these guys can play - that this isn't a waste of time or a waste of his time.

We train our guys to make it to the state series every season. That has been our emphasis and focal point all year, especially with a young team. Taking second is a hard thing to swallow. I don't care who wins it, it wasn't us and that's just a hard thing to swallow.

Marcus Nash is a real talent and has had great success in our league. Obviously, Damian Harrell has done a great job for us. It's a wide-open passing game, so those two guys are the focal points.

Isaiah had three players on him. He was the focal point of their defense. It was good we had other players step up.

J.D. is the focal point of our running game. I don't make that a secret. I don't care who he is or where he's from. This is football. The kid can run the football.

I think Joe's worth every bit of being a max player in this league. He's proven that with his play. But just like he was in Phoenix, he's a piece to the puzzle here. Joe Johnson is a big part of that puzzle. He has to be a big focal point.

It is clear that employees' rights must be a focal point for every possible coalition.

Over the last two days, it's been geopolitical happenings that have supported gold prices. Iran and Palestine are focal points.

Our focal point every season is trying to beat Army, Air Force and Notre Dame, ... Our game against Maryland is just another football game for us, one of 11 we'll play.

Our focal point is to put this fire out and get ready for more, because we're going to have some very bad weather here.

I was glad that I could be used as a focal point to possibly bandy around some ideas, and maybe people would open their eyes to Obama's socialist ideology. However, there were so many important issues to be discussed other than the 'Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber.'

It has always been the focal point of the development.

We need Pau to be our focal point. Everyone knows that.

With the dedication, determination and relentless efforts of an ever increasing number of devotees and volunteers of all ages, this temple will become will soon become a focal point for Hindus in North Texas to congregate and practice their faith.

We know that the hope was that the focus of the buildings would remain artistic. We've tried, not believing we're able to assuage any of those hurt feelings, to embrace the spirit of the place by making art a focal part of our environment.

The 3 has become a real focal point of offenses, and we would like to turn the clock back and see what the game is like without it,

When I first ran for Congress in the 1990s, my background as an openly gay Asian was one of the focal points of the campaign, and, in fact, my opponent attacked me for it.

We needed to screen off some ground floor offices, which have wall to ceiling windows, and to create a visual focal point for the new home of the revenue department.

We put a little more into it to make it a focal entrance to the hospital.

That was a focal point. It has been since our game against USC. We wanted to get our running game going and keep that (Wildcat) offense off the field.

The outlook for the economy will become a focal point this week.

The fact that Internet Explorer is so widely deployed makes it a prime target. This, combined with the 'social engineering' aspect of these attacks -- tricking the users into installing or clicking on something they shouldn't -- means the browser will continue to be a focal point of attack.

I'd like to have younger people around me and that I'll be involved with them a lot more now, as opposed to me being the main focal point.

You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe.

Times Square is the focal point for New Year's Eve. If you're in New York you may think, so what? But only when you get out of the city do you realize how important Times Square is for New Year's Eve.

We're at the tenderloin of the earnings season and you are going to see powerful earnings reports from a lot of companies this week, and I think while we have got economic reports, earnings are going to be the focal point of the market right now, ... I think one feature that we've not talked a lot about is just the sentiment on the part of professional money managers. They have had to be kind of tentative the past two or three months with the Fed hiking. My guess is the one move they can't miss is a big up move here, and I think you could have a train-leaving-the-station kind of rally as institutions come into this marketplace.

We want to be the focal point for bodybuilding on the internet where enthusiasts can find all the answers.

We're training our guys to peak at the state series; that's been our emphasis and focal point all year, especially with a young team. Taking second is a hard thing to swallow.

We understand that this is long overdue. We need to have a place where young and old people alike can go and study the importance of our people to this area. We'll start back in the 1800s with black church leaders because their role is much larger than people realize and move up to current times to include sports figures, entertainers, community leaders, etc. We see this as a focal point of the area's black population.

Whenever Steve Smith steps on the basketball court, he's the focal point. Everything starts with him. I think the guards played very well off of him and that allows them to be even better players. The nice part about Steve Smith as a player is that he doesn't force the action. Very rarely does he take bad shots. He lets the game come to him.

We have to (get better). We didn't run the ball particularly well. We had to rely too much on the pass. That has been a focal point for us in camp. With the level we're playing at, you have to be able to run the ball.

We want it to be a focal point of the community, not tucked away where it's hard to find.

We're starting to get a skyline now and we're starting to sprout up. People have a focal point. This is Niagara Falls and things are starting to grow. I think it's a positive.

We want to show the community how easily art can be a focal point to gather around in a social situation. You see people you don't normally get to talk to in a social situation, and brainstorm with each other about different things.

We are looking on the Selma museum as a focal point of pride in our borough.

Every time he steps on the court, he's the focal point. Everything starts with him.

Earnings will be the main focal point, although the rumbling is already starting about the upcoming FOMC meeting.

We feel we are the focal point, the strong point of the Buffalo Bills, ... So, we take it upon ourselves. We have very high expectations. We want to dominate and get the job done, no matter how many minutes we have to spend on the field, no matter where the ball is when we go out there.

Traffic right now is one of the focal points of about every interest group we talk to. We already hired our traffic consultants and the town is also concerned with the environment, including water supply, public safety and schools.

The state's lack of regulations about well location and construction has been a focal point of this debate.

They all complement each other. They want to win games. Jeff was the focal point last year. That's changed a little bit.

Special teams was huge for us. We worked on the power play a little bit this morning because we realized that was going to be a big focal point in the game, and the special teams battle ended up being what tipped the scales for us tonight.

Some places will have a beautiful fireplace that is blocked by a couch. We want to highlight the focal points of the room by working with what we have.

Defense and rebounding will continue to be the focal point of our development. Obviously, we are working on some offenses that will give us some more options, but defense has a greater presence in our practices than at any other time.

A single individual directly responsible and accountable to the president of the United States should be dedicated to act as the central focal point to lead and coordinate the overall federal response.

That's going to be the focal group, but trust me, the younger ages .... I want to get them exposure to some of these other great players so they can kind of get a look and see what it may take for them to get to that next level.

Public access to public land is the focal point

Our technical staff have solved many crucial technical problems by attacking technological focal points, assembling systems and conducting a range of experiments.

Our defense has been our focal point all season. They made solid plays for most of the game.

I'm delighted to be a part of this national celebration. Rock 'n' roll began in Memphis, and the city continues to be a focal point of enormous musical creativity today.

The Big East was the focal point of our indoor season, so this was more a meet for people who didn't go to that. We wanted something close and something that was a little more low key.

It's really a focal point for us that our scores are going up -- we're closing that gap,

I try to not have it be the focal point in my mind, but I realize that it's a violent sport and serious injuries do occur.

No Tax will act as a focal point for opposition to both the increase and the unnecessary cost being placed on the community by the special election. Benton County already has one of the highest sales-tax rates in the country, and it makes absolutely no sense to add to that burden when there are viable alternatives, especially since the sales tax hits the middle class and working people the hardest.

Consumers depend on About.com for practical solutions to everyday problems. About.com has been at the forefront of the growing demand for online video content, which continues to be a focal point. It works not only to enhance the visitor experience, but to deliver advertisers vivid and engaging sponsorship opportunities within a richer online environment.

It's really going to be a focal point on this campus.

The issue of persecution is a serious one affecting many religions, ... The issue has not previously received much attention with respect to Christians, and the focal point of this report, at the request of Congress, is that subject.

It will become a real focal point for the neighborhood -- a place where everyone can come and gather.

In reality, Richard has stepped up and become really the focal point of our team. Without him there, we were kind of lackluster. We didn't do a very good job of preparing for having a freshman and sophomore at quarterback.

In what we call trophy baths, the tub is set up as the focal point, and people want to make sure it is seen.

In transition, teams are getting to him early, making it that much harder for him. They're grabbing him. ... That's respect. Now he's become a focal point for teams.

I just think running backs can have a dominant role. Everybody looks to quarterbacks to lead the team, but a running back? That guy is out there pounding it down. He can be the focal point as far as leadership of the team. He can do it all. I think the smart teams can see that.

Chicago is a key market for us in the United States as the focal point of the Midwest. We are excited to be placing a franchise here and to have such a strong ownership group.

Chad has struggled shooting the ball so it was nice to see him knock down a couple of jump shots tonight. Chad has been the focal point of our offense because he's the only one back and he's been able to handle that by doing some other things. It was nice to see him get a little confidence back.

It's hard being a leader for so long and being a focal point for so long, ... and then it kind of abruptly stops. It's nice to be back in the mix, and it's also nice not to have 'The Player' pressure on me anymore. It's on other guys this year, so it's going to give me an opportunity possibly to just go out here and play and let the other people have that kind of attention.

It's hard being a leader for so long, being a focal point for so long, and then it kind of abruptly stops. It's nice to be back in the mix. It's also nice not to have 'THE PLAYER' pressure on me anymore. It's on other guys this year. It's going to give me an opportunity to go ahead and play and let the other people have that type of attention.

It's definitely frustrating, because I know what I can do. When you're a focal point of a team's defense it's tough. It's a different role from what you're used to.

As far as Winchester is concerned, it creates a focal point for commerce and other activities.

The museums particularly affected were on the Royal Mile, the focal point for tourists in the city.

The characters are always the focal point of a book for me, whether I'm writing or reading. I may enjoy a book that has an intriguing mystery or a good plot, but to become one of my real favorites, it has to have great characters.

The focal point of our long-range plan is the creation of small learning communities throughout the school district, beginning with early childhood education and continuing all the way through high school. This plan will allow us to reduce school sizes throughout the district and remain at the forefront of today's cutting-edge practices.

The focal point was to get as many people in as possible. A lot of them dropped down with their come-ins (weight) and once they got in and secured at least fourth place we allowed them to go as heavy as we felt comfortable with.

A couple guys on the team joked about it, and coach maybe came up to me and joked about it, ... It really wasn't too much of a focal point on the team, but it was a laughable matter to me. It just played right into the way we were approaching the game -- 'We're nobodies, we're just these small-town guys from Iowa.'