For me, few things are more compelling than watching a great opera.

Persist - don't take no for an answer. If you're happy to sit at your desk and not take any risk, you'll be sitting at your desk for the next 20 years.

The world is a complicated place, and there's a lot of division between people. The performing arts tend to unify people in a way nothing else does.

When I worked in the White House for President Carter, we tried to do comprehensive tax reform and we made some progress, and other presidents have as well.

People used to think that private equity was basically just a compensation scheme, but it is much more about making companies more efficient.

I am involved in a lot of nonprofits. And when I reached the ripe old age of 60, I wanted to provide leadership to some I had been involved in.

I really hope that the philanthropy movement is seen not just as wealthy people giving money away but wealthy people giving away their time, their energy and their ideas.

I regard food as fuel. I am not a brunch person.

Sometimes the best decisions in life are on the spur of the moment. So I generally try to do what I think is right. And sometimes I make mistakes.

I'm blessed by the fact I only need five hours of sleep on a daily basis. I do tend to regard Saturday and Sunday as work days.

I realised how rich I had become and I asked myself, 'Do I really want to be the richest person in the cemetery?

Poets find their voices when they articulate the wishes of the dead, especially those slain as sacrificial talismans to a larger frame of existence.

Be sure that Satan will tempt you at your weak point, not the strong.

The merit claimed for the Anglican Church is that if you let it alone it will let you alone.

I said, 'Ooh, Dad, I want the yellow ones.' He said, 'Where?' I said, 'Right there, Dad. I want the yellow ones.' Everybody goes, 'Those are green'. That's how I knew I was colorblind.

Some things have eternal value, and compassion is one of them. I hope we never lose that. Compassion for humans as well as animals.

I think people want to feel stuff right now.

I was always being called upon to be an honorary boy alongside my brothers. I don't think I'd be a comic now if it hadn't been for that.

If you wanna help, inspire, uplift, don't point the blame and talk down.

I want as many people as possible to hear my music. I'm happy to entertain people by being a star.

The you in you isn't the you you think is in you.