It isn't what people think that is important, but the reason they think what they think.

Banality is a symptom of non-communication. Men hide behind their cliches.

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

Like all revolutions, the surrealist revolution was a reversion, a restitution, an expression of vital and indispensable spiritual needs.

If one does not understand the usefulness of the useless and the uselessness of the useful, one cannot understand art.

Theatre is simply what cannot be expressed by any other means; a complexity of words, movements, gestures that convey a vision of the world inexpressible in any other way.

Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.

All cats die. Socrates is dead. Therefore Socrates is a cat.

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.

It's only when I say that everything is incomprehensible that I come as close as possible to understanding the only thing it is given to us to understand.

The Arts are man's most useless ... and essential ... activity.

Temporary madness may be necessary in some cases, to cleanse and renovate the mind; just as a fit of illness is to carry off the humours of the body.

Our houses are at least 12 feet under water. All you can see on TV are rooftops. And the bridge we came across, the I-10 twin span, is now split.

If all I do in my life is soothe someone's spirit with a song , then let me do that and I'm happy.

No matter what you're doing, live it. Make an experience. Have fun. Relate to someone. Take them in. Learn.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.

Creativity is not enough... the skill of the true artist is to show the real in the light of the ideal and so transfigure it.

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt faced adversities that, in their times, seemed impregnable. Great presidents overcome great odds.

For me, as a writer who comes from quite a naturalistic tradition, British screenwriting is quite delicate, quite small, and rarified in a way.

I've never heard a person say, 'I had a rotten mother, but she's such a great physicist.