A critic at best is a waiter at the great table of literature.

The philistine provides the best definition of art. Anything that makes him rage is first class.

What is forgiven is usually well remembered.

There are two kinds of people; those who are always well and those who are always sick. Most of the evils of the world come from the first sort and most of the achievement from the second.

All the ills of mankind spring from belonging to a race, a nation, a city, a group of some kind. The ideal would be to belong to none, and to care for allbut who is capable of that?

Art is anything people do with distinction.

A good reputation is better than fame.

Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative.

Intellectually, most people never wash. They never free their minds of the accumulated rubbish of centuries.

The best live among us in disguise.

Imagination should be integrated with life, not turned into a separate activity, art, that monopolizes one's whole existence.

If you serve humanity, you serve humanity's God.

I can still make a fist, and breath still burns in my chest. So look at my face. Look at my mortal soul, and remember it. You did not crush me, and you will have the rest of eternity to think on it.

It's easier to surrender to confinement.

And I argued with that intelligence estimate and I think it is a responsibility of policymakers to use their best judgment on the basis of the intelligence they've received.

I think a lot of good actors - for instance, Gary Sinise - have no training. His training was really entirely on his feet. I suppose you have to have an instinct for it.

It was very interesting time to be in England. Even at that point [John] Lennon and [Paul] McCartney influenced my writing. I thought, "maybe there is a huck or two in here I haven't thought of".

In Germany I ingested the entire contents of the hotel mini-bar before a show and stuck my fingers in this guy's nostrils because I thought they would fit.

I used to lie down on the grass and draw the blades as they grew - until every square foot of meadow, or mossy bank, became a possession to me.

God did not give you the spirit of cowardice.

Regret of neglected opportunity is the worst hell that a living soul can inhabit.