A famous monk once said, I don't always know what the right thing to do is, my Lord, but I think the fact that I want to please you pleases you.

One of the things that Teller and I are obsessed with, one of the reasons that we're in magic, is the difference between fantasy and reality.

Channeling is just bad ventriloquism. You use another voice, but people can see your lips moving.

You get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right.

Atheism is the absence of religion. We don’t really need atheism. We just need to get rid of religion.

If you are doing something for reward or punishment, you do not have morality.

In music, if you hit a wrong note, people forgive you. In magic when something goes wrong, the entire art is destroyed.

I think voting for the lesser of two evils in game theory always leads to more evil.

Much better than the feeling of having things is the feeling of having earned things.

Better to be uneducated than educated by your government.

Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality.

The only thing that is limiting me and you from attaining anything in life is what we know or what we don’t know.

You are likely to fall when you stop paddling your bicycle. Such is life. As long as you don’t give up, you will never end up failing!

When you die, your culture takes you in, and then, if you've given enough, your place is near the centre.

you wereand always will bethat first ever touchto have fertilizedthe groundbeneath my life’s treesthat first ever roseto have fragrancedthe rest of my memories.

The biggest enemies of willpower: temptation, self-criticism, and stress. (...) these three skills —self-awareness, self-care, and remembering what matter most— are the foundation for self-control.

My daughter's 19. I'm not asking her to develop as an artist. I'm just asking her to develop as a full person, human being.

Action itself, so long as I am convinced that it is right action, gives me satisfaction.

So I have this word for much of what I do in life: 'plorking.' I'm not playing and I'm not working, I'm plorking.

You have to be the parent; you can't be their friend.

Music - not just the lyrics, but the music itself - expresses confused or illicit passions: rage, lust, envy, frustration, channeling these energies and creating an outlet for them.