A hero is a goddam stupid thing to have in the first place and a general block to anything you might wanta accomplish on your own.

When kids can't afford to see it anymore maybe we'll have a whole resurgence of garage bands all over America and this New Wave thing will start to mean something on a grass roots level.

The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious.

Style is originality; fashion is fascism. The two are eternally and unalterably opposed.

Music, you know, true music not just rock 'n' roll, chooses you.

The only questions worth asking today are whether humans are going to have any emotions tomorrow, and what the quality of life will be if the answer is no.

Realizing that life is precious the natural tendency is to trample on it, like laughing at a funeral.

Sometimes I think nothing is simple but the feeling of pain.

The whole point of American culture is to pick up any old piece of trash and make it shine with more facets than the Hope Diamond.

John Lennon at his best despised cheap sentiment and had to learn the hard way that once you've made your mark on history those who can't will be so grateful they'll turn it into a cage for you.

The ultimate sin of any performer is contempt for the audience.

Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses...

We took the Bible and prayer out of public schools, now we're having weekly shootings practically.

Every time I'm shooting a movie I want to kill myself. Because I don't see the light in the end of the tunnel.

Photography appears to be an easy activity; in fact it is a varied and ambiguous process in which the only common denominator among its practitioners is in the instrument.

Progressivism is usually seen as a stepping back from individualism into a progressive community...

Indeed, if communist central planners could have organized the economy with as much detail, precision, and flexibility as a modern-day Toyota or Wal-Mart, communism would probably still exist.

As I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.

All true knowledge contradicts common sense.

I think of stress as the creator of cancer and heart attacks, like a tiny little ball you feed. I believe that one of the reasons I've never got ill is that I'm not stressed.

An educated memory depends on an organized system of associations; and its goodness depends on two of their peculiarities: first, on the persistency of the associations; and, second, on their number.