I have no self-respect. But can a man of acute sensibility respect himself at all?

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man ... just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man.

Learning to love is hard and we pay dearly for it. It takes hard work and a long apprenticeship, for it is not just for a moment that we must learn to love, but forever.

People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.

It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise.

Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.

I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.

Don’t be overwise; fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don’t be afraid - the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again.

The most offensive is not their lying - one can always forgive lying - lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth - what is offensive is that they lie and worship their own lying.

Make no mistake, adolescence is a war. No one gets out unscathed.

I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is 'In 15 minutes everybody will be famous.'

Every day FM radio ran out of hours, not music.

How can an article about me or the Batman be the true story when I am not consulted or interviewed?

One time when I was visiting The Vatican I got the Pope really drunk, and then while he was sleeping I put his hand in the holy water.

Most men I do not meet at all, for they seem not to have time; they are busy about their beans.

I cannot imagine a context that would some day, in some manner, make the monstrous crime of September 11 an understandable or comprehensible political act

To connect with the great river we all need a path, but when you get down there there's only one river.

Things don't happen to us. They happen for us.

When I make an American movie it's going to come out all over the world-it doesn't happen the same way for an Italian film or a French film.