When I was 18 the vision was to make music that didn't exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.

If you're going to play it out of tune, then play it out of tune properly.

Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this?

I used to be psychic, but I drank my way out of it.

It's just like music when you reckon it up. It's like, listening to Pavement, it's just the Fall in 1985, isn't it? They haven't got an original idea in their heads.

I like to push people till I get the truth out of them. Get them drunk, or whatever. Then discover what they really think. Push them and push them and push them.

I do feel like an outsider, but I don't lose any sleep over it.

I don't want security guards. I don't think security guards are particularly good for your writing.

Fear is something I try not to absorb.

My earliest memory is learning to read 'Muffin the Mule' when I was about three.

A lot of musicians are really hard to deal with. They aren't as smart as me.

I'll never stop working. I want to die in the saddle. A day is wasted for me if I haven't done something even mildly creative.

Rick Berman, who produced Star Trek, was a big Night Court fan. So he knew who I was as soon as I walked in.

Look at pictures of me growing up. It wasn't always the way it is now. It was a bumpy road for me.

The ferocity we show our foes must be tempered by the lesson we hope to teach.

A brainiac notices everything, an ignoramus comments about everything.

I think of myself more as a character actor than that ingenue leading lady, who started out something like Michelle Pfeiffer, or Jessica Lange. I'm a bit quirkier than that.

If you pay too much attention to your reputation, you could lose your character.

What needs to happen is more of a global understanding, and I believe the United States can work as a global partner and not be the hegemon.

God’s power rests not on totalizing omnipotence, but on His ability to alchemize suffering, tragedy, and loss into wisdom, understanding, and joy.

For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement.