I told the doctor I was overtired, anxiety-ridden, compulsively active, constantly depressed, with recurring fits of paranoia. Turns out I'm normal.

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.

Design is important because chaos is so hard.

I grew up to have my father's looks, my father's speech patterns, my father's posture, my father's opinions, and my mother's contempt for my father.

We are all continually embarking on first drafts, in every aspect of our lives.

Maturity is only a short break in adolescence.

If you are not able to communicate successfully between yourself and yourself, how are you supposed to make it with the strangers outside?

Jesus died to forgive our sins. Dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?

Imagination continually frustrates tradition; that is its function.

Writing, I explained, was mainly an attempt to out-argue one's past; to present events in such a light that battles lost in life were either won on paper or held to a draw.

Getting out of bed in the morning is an act of false confidence.

Life is not what happens to you but what you think about it.

As Tony [Blair] said in his book, Gordon [Brown] was brilliant and impossible. If he'd just been one of those things, the options are obvious.

When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I'd like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

I have worked with another first-time director who was not that open, and it was probably one of the worst experiences I ever had, so my antennas are really out.

Every spoken word double-crosses us. The written word is the only tolerable form of communication, as it isn't a stone in a bridge between souls but a ray of light between stars.

I'm a control freak. I'm defensive. And I'm an egomaniac. That's true about me.

It is not always the highest talent that thrives best. Mediocrity, with tact, will outweigh talent oftentimes.

All banks should be under government control. Deposits guaranteed, dividends reduced, officials turned into state servants taking their orders from Washington.

It's never too late to change the programming imprinted in childhood, carried in our genes or derived from previous lives; the solution is mindfulness in the present moment.