I am on the side of pluralistic societies, and I will do whatever I can - by the best means available and any means necessary - to protect spaces that encourage open communication between people.

Avant-garde means never having to say you're sorry.

Modern instruments were designed to throw sound all in one direction.

I hate nostalgia, I want nothing to do with it.

Good is the director who lets you do what you have to do.

Jazz is a music of great achievements but speed and chops serve a different function in jazz.

Influence people think about it as someone you like but influence is also what you're revolted by. In fact, often it's what you're running away from.

After twelve centuries, a little hope had come into the world - and then came an illiterate prince to ride roughshod over it with a barbarian horde and...

It feels good to read book. But it is grander to write a book.

Q: When did you realize you wanted to be a w

I finally understood what my grandmother meant. If I wasn't comfortable with myself, I would never be comfortable.

What is the real purpose behind the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus? They seem like greater steps toward faith and imagination, each with a payoff. Like cognitive training exercises.

I'm positive and I smile a lot, and I'm kind of a banana, but serious work just seems to find me, so I'm not going to argue with it.

Along with the joy of parenthood, with every child comes a piercing vulnerability. It is at once sublime and terrifying

The very rich and the very social are, often, the very stuffy.

You might be a redneck if your favorite T-shirt is offensive in thirteen states.

It's all about getting better and controlling the things that you can control, which is getting better day to day.