I can't think of any sentiment which is finer than being in a position to give people something they like. I love giving, I am rather embarrassed at receiving.

Men of my age live in a state of continual desperation.

I believe that one can aspire to as much as one wants to.

I don't know much about my family history except that my father had straight black hair and his ancestors probably came from India.

Life is so short, it seems careless not to use it all.

To pretend you don't feel a certain strangeness after living in England for 40 years is a fallacy.

The thing about television is that you can't fake it. Your sense of discovery must be genuine; you can't pretend to be surprised.

Poetry says the things that I can't say. I read a lot, but I never write it.

I love living in London.

How can you interview somebody about something fairly technical if you start on the wrong foot by not even knowing his name?

I am actually a terrible coward. Fear is a constant fact of my life.

We all must serve the Lord in whatsoever capacity He has called us to serve

Jazz is the only lever used by all the riffraff of Tram 83 to switch social class as one would subway cars.

What one generation sees as a luxury, the next sees as a necessity.

There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys.

Educated fools; from uneducated schools.

British scientists have demonstrated that cigarettes can harm your children. Fair enough. Use an ashtray!

Young people get very excited when they hear why they are Americans. It is not hard to do.

My house used to be haunted, but the ghosts haven't been back since the night I tried on all my wigs.

What's true in our minds is true, whether some people know it or not.

It is not simply that we share with each other a common humanity, but that individually we have no humanity without each other.