An eye for an eye til everyone is blind.

A gourmet meal without a glass of wine just seems tragic to me somehow.

And in fact, I think the more we start to worship perfection the more soul leaks out of art.

That's the great paradox of living on this earth, that in the midst of great pain you can have great joy as well. If we didn't have those things we'd just be numb.

Chocolate's okay, but I prefer a really intense fruit taste. You know when a peach is absolutely perfect... it's sublime. I'd like to capture that and then use it in a dessert.

You have to listen to what resonates within your own gut. You find your direction there. Your voice comes out.

You have to write badly to write at all. If it's crappy, I will rewrite it later. But it will be mine. You can hear the resonance of an artist who goes into herself.

If you say that you're all about a certain something, and look back and see that the choices that you've made don't reflect that, then there's something for you to look at.

You've got to dance like nobody's watching, and love like it's never going to hurt.

Standing knee deep in a river and dying of thirst.

I want to savor the aging process. As you get older, you trade your innocence for wisdom and the wisdom is your reward.

It is a curiously moving experience, to hear 350 sailors uttering the words "Oh shit!" in eleven different languages.

If you want control, loosen your grip. You're strangling your employees. Letting go is actually holding on.

The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history.

People make snap judgments about me that are frequently misguided.

I'm not into politics. I'm into survival.

On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.'

For most people the prohibitions are a good thing. But If you are able to maintain very powerful states of mind, then you'll find yourself in everything you see.

A suppressing person isn't critical. A suppressing person is a person who denies the rights of others.

Film in the 20th century, it's the American art form, like jazz.

Your humanity is your instrument.