And that's what got me to the piano, that's what got me up in the morning: a blank piece of paper and a hope to have something by the end of the day.

Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, everything that's wonderful, Is sure to come your way

I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do.

Really you just gotta keep chugging along and keep a positive attitude and get through all the problems. You gotta face them, otherwise you don't get through.

You can only bite off so much, so you gotta know what you want to do.

Don't tell me what to do, don't tell me what to say. And please, when I go out with you, don't put me on display.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

And I thought, you know, a little gender confusion makes a better person. A little adversity in life at an early age. It's character building.

One night I saw them kissing at a party, so I kissed some other guy. Johnny jumped up and hit him, cause he still loved me, that's why.

I think the record industry, by and large what's left of it, is still totally homophobic. I think it's much less so in the film industry now, but the record industry, it's always been a man's world.

I think I turned to writing really just to wake up in the morning and be a musician and to have something to do, and feel like a musician every day even if I wasn't working.

Phones are distracting. The internet is distracting.The way he looked at you? He wasn't distracted. He was consumed.

How am I, a writer, supposed to feel about having lost you to a reader?

Food is sort of like the Jewish sense of humor, a defense mechanism. It is one of the things that helped the Jews survive through 2, 000 years of an often very harsh Diaspora.

You don't take it personally. You understand that if people are angry that somehow the government is failing, then they are going to look to the guy who represents government.

Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me.

The last I checked, 'Titanic' worldwide has grossed $1.3 billion. Imagine how much more it would have grossed if I had gotten the sky correct.

I don't pare down much. I write the beginning of a story in a notebook and it comes out very close to what it will be in the end. There is not much deliberateness about it.

We do not seek a Christ whom we have invented, for only in the real communion of the Church do we encounter the real Christ.

The trick to getting things done is to list things to do in doable order.

Sometimes the facts in my head get bored and decide to take a walk in my mouth. Frequently this is a bad thing.