New York is not Mecca. It just smells like it.

If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.

If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.

Talent is the gift plus the passion - a desire to succeed so intense that no force on earth can stop it.

Once you start compromising your thoughts, you're a candidate for mediocrity.

Never underestimate the stimulation of eccentricity.

It's always painful when you're writing memoirs because you've got to go through the dark places, but it gives you a chance to find out the person you really are, not the person you thought you were.

Take care of him. And make him feel important. And if you can do that, you'll have a happy and wonderful marriage. Like two out of every ten couples.

I love living. I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they've come up with so far.

Writing is an escape from a world that crowds me. I like being alone in a room. It's almost a form of meditation- an investigation of my own life.

I was constantly being dragged out of movies for laughing too loud.

I wished upon a star and the heavens sent me you

The first story to read is the Biblical stories.

. . . failure is also the stern parent of truth. (p525)

Well, really, how would you like to make love with someone who kept twittering about his pure mystic modality and wanted to stick flowers in your navel?

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

I eat mostly vegan, try to get enough sleep. For me, that's really critical.

There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them.

You know how you're supposed to choose between playing up your eyes or your lips? I always choose lips. I love the drama.

Men walk almost always in the paths trodden by others, proceeding in their actions by imitation.

I'd rather have none at all than a grain too much.