Craig Thompson Quotations

One of the most common questions I am asked is whether insurance or Medicare will pay for weight loss surgery. The new Medicare coverage decision is a very positive development for those affected by obesity, since private insurers often look to government policy when establishing their own coverage guidelines.

I wouldn't say that. We felt back in 2003 we needed to try something different. Now we're heading back.

My dad was a plumber, and my mom was on and off again, either a stay-at-home mom or working with the disabled as a visiting-nurse assistant.

Postseason football is an absolute priority for us, ... I'm not saying this gets us into the BCS or gets us an automatic bid, but it certainly helps move us in that direction.

Postseason football is an absolute priority for us. I'm not saying this gets us into the BCS or gets us an automatic bid, but it certainly helps move us in that direction.

I don't know Arabic. I can't speak or write it.

I grew up in a very fundamentalist, evangelical Christian household. Both my parents were born-again - their faith infused every aspect of my childhood. I'll probably spend most of my life working through that.

I grew up in a very working-class family and also a very fundamentalist Christian family. So, we didn't have access to the arts in the house in any form other than the Sunday funnies.

I don't know that you can have an encore.

Lots of turkey vultures are moving through the area, ... This is also an excellent time to see broad-winged hawks, red-tailed hawks, ospreys and sharp-shinned hawks, along with vultures.

Lots of turkey vultures are moving through the area. This is also an excellent time to see broad-winged hawks, red-tailed hawks, ospreys and sharp-shinned hawks, along with vultures.

We've never done this before, ... We don't know if it will work. We may carry your ass all the way over to the boat and not be able to do this thing.

I would say right now it would be a stretch to say we could have five teams in bowls.

I'm still down with Jesus. I like to think of him mostly as a social revolutionary who mixed with bad crowds and hated the rich.

I think with 'Chunky Rice,' it felt novel to me to give this emo twist on these funny animals.

I think we're going to have tri-champions at 9-2 or 8-3. I think it's that balanced. That's a little unfortunate, and where we need to get with our league is that that 9-2 still gets an automatic, like everyone else's automatic.

I think there is some overlap in terms of artistic desires and Christian desires.

Our bottom line is, we don't have to do anything. If we do choose to have more than eight members, that's a decision independent of what any other conference in America is considering.

I think our situation is we would probably be better suited to have somebody go 11-0 again. But two to three years from now, we'd be better suited to have two or three 9-2, Top 25 people. But right now we just have to keep pushing.

It gets so frustrating, week after week, year after year. I don't know what people have not noticed or don't know about the University of Utah. I think they have, with the exception of a two-point conversion, won every game they've played and competed at a very high level and been on national television. Maybe people went to bed, I don't know.

I think you can still look to Jesus' word for guidance in your life. It's just not the guidance that it seems like most Christians are applying to their own lives.

I would love for them to be the first, but I'm for anybody. If you play a good schedule, as determined both by the opinion pollsters and the computer polls, and you go undefeated, you should have a chance to play at the highest level.

Most of my Muslim friends are politically liberal in a lot of senses. They are far more open-minded than the Christian circles I grew up in, which are, you know, actually scarier. That said, too, I still identify with the teachings of Jesus. I don't think they resemble or relate to modern-day Christianity.

We can't force them. It's just a good-faith agreement.

We'll try to move the timeline along, but we just have to kind of wait and see what the results are,

We have a lot of people with a lot of work left to do.

You have so many layers, that you can peel away a few, and everyone's so shocked or impressed that you're baring your soul, while to you it's nothing, because you know you've twenty more layers to go.

Maybe I'm sad about wanting you. I'm not too comfortable with wanting someone.

Edward Said talks about Orientalism in very negative terms because it reflects the prejudices of the west towards the exotic east. But I was also having fun thinking of Orientalism as a genre like Cowboys and Indians is a genre – they’re not an accurate representation of the American west, they’re like a fairy tale genre.

For what matters if I gain the whole world, but lose my soul?

Right now the day length is exactly the same as in spring when birds key into it and begin singing. The birds are a little confused by it all and the singing isn't very intense. It only lasts a week or so each fall, but it's still cool to hear spring bird songs at this time of the year.

The question is not, could Utah compete week in and week out in the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, whatever, .. The question is, in a one- game setting, can Utah compete, can Utah get the market share, sell the tickets of one of those more familiar institutions. Nobody knows that answer.

Which is scarier-- lust or temptation?

How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface. To make a map of my movement - no matter how temporary.

Something about being rejected at Church Camp felt so much more awful than being rejected at school.

Shame is always easier to handle if you have someone to share it with.

At night, lying on your back and staring at the falling snow, it's easy to imagine oneself soaring through the stars.

Pressed against her I can hear eternity -- hollow, lonely spaces and currents that churn ceaselessly, and the fallen snow welcomes the falling snow with a whispered "Hush".

I wanted a heaven. And I grew up striving for that world-- an eternal world- that would wash away my temporary misery.

You're more than a story.

I love the sea because it is boundless.

Even a mistake is better than nothing.

and yet I feel that the most real home I'll ever have is the space where our roads merged and traveled along together... for a time.

Sometimes, upon waking, the residual dream can be more appealing that reality, and one is reluctant to give it up. For a while, you feel like a ghost -- Not fully materialized, and unable to manipulate your surroundings. Or else, it is the dream that haunts you. You wait with the promise of the next dream.

Her lips tarried at mine. Baiting each other with the warmth of our breath, barely grazing, detouring, then connecting.

I was grateful for cereal --- the only food that my tummy, riddled by pangs of infatuation, could handle.

On my first visit to the public library, I was like a kid at a candy store where all the candy was free. I gorged myself until my tummy ached.

We're going to reach all four corners of the country. We're going to be able to follow Mountain West sports the way no one else has been able to follow Mountain West sports before.

Couple that with our top programs, we feel we can make a great step forward, and a great statement about inclusion in a new BCS. We feel that we have really made a step toward being a BCS league.

These states and cities like Los Angeles should not be forced to cut back on vital support services such as mental health services, child care, food banks, treatment education, and case management in order to satisfy an ill-considered mandate from Washington.

The state of your psyche is reflected in your body.

You get outside, let the kids ride all the rides, see all the different people.

We've had a lot of people comment that maybe our league deserves an automatic bid more than leagues that have automatic bids, without naming names.

No question, (the BCS equation) was a determining factor,

This is a fan event. Obviously the fans would prefer to go to Las Vegas than come here and that's fine. We're excited about the future of the tournament in Las Vegas.

Additional exposure in the state of Texas is certainly welcomed.

This is an interesting case study. There's 40,000 Colorado State alumni in the Denver area. Wyoming has several thousand alumni living in Denver. Air Force has a lot of fans in the area. But for whatever reason, it didn't translate to sales.

I had this desire to understand Islam better and then focus on the beauty of Arabic and Islamic cultures. And one of the first things to emerge was Arabic calligraphy, which was instantly inspiring.

I'm really interested in making a mark on a paper and letting that be cursive shorthand for an idea - that's the origin of cartooning.

It took me months to figure out how to get approved for weight loss surgery. Most people don't realize that obesity alone won't qualify you for the procedure. Insurance companies have written guidelines that they use to determine whether or not a specific medical procedure is appropriate, and it's not easy to put together a request that will pass your carrier's review process.

They can get in at 9-2, 8-3, but we have to be 11-0. That's what we're trying to change.

His death said to the world that no matter how much privilege you have or how good your doctors are, there is no cure. At that time, many people in the entertainment industry knew people who expected to die, so Hollywood was very personally touched.

Christianity and Islam, they have the same morals, same lifestyle, some of the same stories that shaped them.

I don't know how I would define a playoff. I prefer something a little different that gives us greater access at a higher level than now. Whether it's a 16- or eight-team playoff, I don't have a feeling on what's the best model. There are hundreds out there that could potentially work.

These things take time. Let's see where things are in August. But I'm hopeful the national conversation on Thursday will help get things moving along, both in Las Vegas and San Diego.

In 2005, I did a lot on 'Habibi' and a lot of business stuff. I got an agent that year.

After 'Blankets,' I was sick of drawing myself and doing this autobiographical, mundane, Midwestern sort of comics. I wanted to create something bigger than myself and outside myself.

Foreign-language books are sometimes more beautiful when you can't tell what's being said. It's like you ruin it by reading.

It's the difference between having some presence and no presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, ... When our standings are in the paper every day there and Dallas-area talk shows say, 'TCU won against BYU in a Mountain West game today,' I'll take that as a glass half-full approach. Maybe what is a 10 to 12 percent (television) interest jumps to 15 or 18 percent right away and then CSTV explodes on the scene in 2006.

That's one of the fallacies at the end of the selection process, when you hear people say (the committee) didn't know. Believe me, there's nothing those people don't know. They know the first time you wear retro jerseys.

It's actually easier to do autobiographical stories. The story is already there. It's a matter of carving away what doesn't fit rather than building up from nothing.

It's an opportunity to play at times that our fans want us to play, when it's convenient for our fans.