If a man has no vices he's in great danger of making vices about his virtues and there's a spectacle.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.

There is nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.

If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a secret agent.

The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.

Art is not only the desire to tell one's secret; it is the desire to tell it and hide it at the same time.

If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good

Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.

I worked hard all my life as far as this music business. I dreamed of the day when I could go to New York and feel comfortable and they could come out here and be comfortable.

You can't change who you are, but you can change what you have in your head, you can refresh what you're thinking about, you can put some fresh air in your brain.

I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. What I do, in my opinion, is by no means extraordinary.

I guess we often get the deep blues, both of us, and wonder what it all means- the people, the buildings, the day by day things, the waste of time, of ourselves.

I just don't want to be self-obsessed.

Some forgive and forget, more forgive and remember, most forgive and remind.

Kindness is a rotten fruit that poisons anyone who partakes of it. Throw it in the face of your enemies and let it ruin them instead.

Disease does not recognize congressional districts or party affiliation.

Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.

One thing you learn about the novel as a form is that it's always smarter than you are.