Art brings people back to their sensibility as human beings. This is the purpose of art: To bring people together and bring back the humanity as well.

It must descend, as the dew, upon the tender herb, or like melting flakes of snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.

Finite mind cannot comprehend infinity.

We see how much a man has, and therefore we envy him; did we see how little he enjoys, we should rather pity him.

Life's only choosing when to die. Life's a big postponement because the choice is so difficult. It's a tremendous relief not to have to choose.

Then what are you? An electronic Hannibal Lector? You can't eat my liver with fava beans through a modem, you know.

I'm trying to create artwork that makes people, and myself, think about judgment as a reflex. This is something that must be changed.

In France, they make you feel that you cannot be two things at the same time. You can't be French and Arabic; you can't be French and Muslim.

For we seldom admire the wit, when we dislike the man.

Great wits, like great beauties, look upon mere esteem as a flat insipid thing; nothing less than admiration will content them.

That wit is truly amiable, which gladdens and enlivens every thing, which shines with a lustre gentle, but not faint, and powerful, but not glaring.

Dare to believe in your sacred dreams

The only candidate I'd allow to play my music would be Bigfoot, and unless we're talking about foraging for squirrels, he's notoriously apolitical.

If voting changed anything... I'd still laugh!

The art of pleasing is the art of deception.

We do have our challenges. Some things don't always work right in Washington, and the anger you see from the electorate, I think, is a reflection of what's not working right.

Everything in life has a place, and when one thing moves, it must go somewhere else.

Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a noble mind, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles of virtue and veracity.

One of the biggest lies in capitalism is that companies like competition. They don't. Nobody likes competition.

In repose, my face looks as though I had gone through a terrible deal in the last five minutes. I have to disguise the expression and get a glassy-eyed look. That's something I learned from my dog.

If someone writes a nice review of my record, I feel like I should take them out to dinner or go over and clean their apartment.