Unless we insist that politics is imagination and mind, we will learn that imagination and mind are politics, and of a kind we will not like.

We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.

Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere.

The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.

What marks the artist is his power to shape the material of pain we all have.

It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief.

It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it.

The immature artist imitates. The mature artist steals.

We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us.

The smell of the ocean, southern breeze, blue sky, and the gentle sound of dancing waves make me sing the song of love.

We can do whatever we wish to do provided our wish is strong enough. What do you want most to do? That's what I have to keep asking myself in the face of difficulties.

Very few individuals have the tenacity and the love to propel them beyond everything they know and can trust to face the unknown, let alone be absorbed in it.

I don't really think that there is anyone in the modern pop business who I feel I want to spar with.

I needed time to stand back and go through a lot more experience in life. Then I have something to write about, joke or to animate.

Never think you're better than anyone else, but don't let anyone treat you like you're worse than they are.

Our history doesn't look at our own violence, the violence in our own past, and we go out and repeat it someplace else.

Every day you've got running shoes on, it's a good day.

Families, can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

I've been singing my whole life. I'd randomly sing in the hallways at high school, and all my friends would be like, 'You should sing on 'Canadian Idol'!" It definitely gassed me!