I somehow got this reputation of diddling and dithering. I don't remember dithering at all.

People expect Byzantine, Machiavellian logic from politicians. But the truth is simple. Trial lawyers learn a good rule: 'Don't decide what you don't have to decide.' That's not evasion, it's wisdom.

You want calamities? What about the Ice Age? God made this world, but didn't complete it.

There are only two rules for being successful. One, figure out exactly what you want to do, and two, do it.

For me to make lasagna would be a desecration of a great Italian dish. . . . I don't mess with sacred things.

The Republicans believe that the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behind.

There are few things more amusing in the world of politics than watching moderate Republicans charging to the right in pursuit of greater glory.

The mugger who is arrested is back on the street before the police officer, but the person mugged may not be back on the street for a long time, if ever.

I talk and talk and talk, and I haven't taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week.

Every time I've done something that doesn't feel right, it's ended up not being right.

The American people need no course in philosophy or political science or church history to know that God should not be made into a celestial party chairman.

There is nothing around me but money, money, money.

For me there is something primitively soothing about this music, and it went straight to my nervous system, making me feel ten feet tall.

If I see a door comin' my way I'm knockin' it down. And if I can't knock down the door I'm sliding through the window.

Mathematics is the science which uses easy words for hard ideas.

There's no huge, deep message in any of the songs. We recorded a few months of being human.

A homing pigeon must love her home; otherwise she will not wish to return to it.

Narrative and characters have always interested me. I never tried to alienate an audience. Of course, gradually, I wanted a bigger and bigger space to draw people in, so it's very organic [growth].

It takes a lot of effort to make a building look effortless.

Feeling sympathy and searching for explanations isn't the same as believing that the violence is justified.

To admit ignorance is the highest knowledge. It is the necessary condition for all learning.