I had studied piano since I was 13, but I was surrounded by students who'd been playing since they were 5. I realized I was never going to be anything but mediocre.

I think every American actor wants to be a movie star. But I never wanted to do stupid movies, I wanted to do films.

The worth of a life is not determined by a single failure or a solitary success.

I'm a real pushover for animals.

The technique's many benefits for actors include minimized tension, centeredness, vocal relaxation, and responsiveness, mind/body connection and about an inch and a half of additional height.

Hindsight. It's like foresight without a future.

I've got the Jewish guilt and the Irish shame and it's a hell of a job distinguishing which is which.

Most of the comedies I've done have been rather farcical and extravagant.

But, I do think, on a very simplistic level, that we can project onto dogs because they are so innocent. They don't come with a lot of baggage.

I totally related to Cole Porter's magnetic pull to any piano that was in the room, which he was famous for doing, as was Gershwin. You couldn't drag them away from a piano.

Just because you're not sweating doesn't mean you're not putting in the work.

I often arrive at quite sensible ideas and judgements, on the spur of the moment. It is when I stop to think that I become foolish.

A new heart for a New Year, always!

Jesus Christ seeks to save the lost souls.

Television: The word is half Greek, half Latin. No good can come of it.

Innovations, which are the births of time.

Geniuses of certain kinds - mathematicians, chess players, computer programmers - seem, if not mad, at least lacking in the social skills most easily identified with sanity.

Having the opportunity to play a strong woman is a good one.

See, that's the thing about L.A.- When you've mastered the art of feeling lonely in a room full of people, that's when you know.

It will be one of the tragedies of Christian history if future historians record that at the height of the twentieth century the church was one of the greatest bulwarks of white supremacy.

I have had hundreds and hundreds of stroke cases. My methods cured them--when they were so stiff they were almost dead.