Nothing seems to me more tragic than the pressures we put on artists to do what we think we'll like, and our refusal to prize what is most ornery and special about them.

We may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity and give them absolute levity, for the sake of easy transport.

Lighting new cigarettes, pouring more drinks. It has been a beautiful fight. Still is.

I think the West is in a low point we haven't seen since the 1930s.

Well, there were several things. One was that the industry itself built in Detroit was abandoning the city - taking factories elsewhere, the corporate headquarters elsewhere.

It is in adversity that the good show their friendship most clearly; prosperity always finds friends.

What we call the present is given shape by an accumulation of the past.

I'm involved in issues, and issues are about grass-roots politics.

He who can copy can do.

Being inoffensive, and being offended, are now the twin addictions of the culture.

...Blessed is anyone who knows who he or she really is and builds a place to live there.