The first time I heard Ron Whitehead read I felt what I imagine those who heard Abraham Lincoln deliver The Gettysburg Address felt.

Franz Kline, who became known for his black and white paintings, did a whole series of gorgeous landscapes and wonderful portraits that may still hang in Greenwich Village.

Today's trend ends up in tomorrow's landfill.

That is the way a great master carpenter feels, or an architect or composer or anyone who creates anything - people want to be appreciated for what they have done.

I learned from my uncle that jazz, like symphony music, was built to last.

The atmosphere was wide open in those circles that we traveled in.

In symphonic music, when you are conducting, you do the same thing. You are feeling the whole orchestra, thinking ahead so you can prepare for a change.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti had a tremendous education as an artist and also an enormous knowledge of literarture.

We met with the poet Frank O'Hara, who was a link between Upper and Lower Bohemia, and who worked at the Museum of Modern Art, where we had hoped to do the readings.

A few years later, my Uncle David took me to the Earle Theatre to hear Duke Ellington.

Allen Ginsberg was a world authority on the writing of William Blake, and had an incredible knowledge of classic literature and world politics.

The more science discovers and the more comprehension it gives us of the mechanisms of existence, the more clearly does the mystery of existence itself stand out.

The real problems of our planet are not economic or technical, they are philosophical. The philosophy of unbridled materialism is being challenged by events.

...there was a difference between killing for nourishment and killing for curiosity or sport.

I began to work the stage and get the audience into it. I also learned how to have fun out there. It is something I will never forget.

In reading, in literature and poetry, I found an artistic freedom that I didn't see at Woolworth's. I would read everything from Shakespeare to science fiction ... sometimes a book a day.

You're always trying to seize any opportunity or hold on to one if you already have it. It was just a matter of going out there and producing for the team.

Come and take your seat, Lady Dorina.

I believe that reading widely is the best preparation for writing.

Had I lived in Palestine, in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, I would have washed his feet, not with my tears, but with my heart's blood!

If you play it straight it's funny - the best comedy is always played straight down the middle. The adjustment is understanding from the screenplay that a moment is hilarious.