I was hell bent on destruction... it was like being possessed by a demon.

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap.

Life's too short to deal with other people's insecurities.

No expectations. Ask nothing, expect nothing and accept everything, and life is very well.

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

I don't believe in nepotism. I don't much like the idea of parents who interfere.

Relish everything that's inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

The whole point of courage, to overcome your fear. That's the interesting thing, when courage bleeds through the fear.

I always liked to take the plunge, you know, I'd jump in at the deep end and hope that I'd find land somehow, or hope I'd float or survive. That's more or less the way I've gone through my life.

You're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?

I had a slight feeling of babysitting as we walked soberly along together using all our old phrases, making all our old jokes, not quite feeling all our old fondness.

America didn’t bypass or escape civilization. It did something far more profound, far cleverer: it simply changed what civilization could be.

There were many, many debts to be paid before she left Rifthold and took back her throne. Starting now. Fortunate that she was in a killing sort of mood.

There is a kind of perverse unity forming among us, born, I think, of the discontent of all classes of people with the endless frustration of life.

The only thing that ever made me want to be a wife-beater is being called one. Your honor, can I have five minutes to make her not a liar, please?

To me, it's a very moral film. If my son were a teenager now, I would drag him to see it.

It's definitely a shock to go from being 15 in high school to working. There's no real cushion there. There's no preparation at all. You learn by doing.

Oh, when I was a kid in show business I was poor. I used to go to orgies to eat the grapes.

A thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope.

Look in the mirror, and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.