You can't do the end of the world in a conventionally dramatic way or Boy Meets Girl way.

I met The Beatles and Stones at the same time, because Michael Cooper was doing several of their album covers.

When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor.

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.

I'm not interested in attacking, I'm interested in astonishing.

Someone wrote a piece about Henry Green in The Partisan Review that was so intriguing that I got one of his novels, Loving, I believe, which was the first that came to attention in the United States.

There is no power on earth that can loosen a man's grip on his own throat

In that sense, film is superior, but the difficulty is your lack of control as a writer.

When I finally made it to the set, I spent a lot of time doing damage control on The Magic Christian.

After Strangelove I also started work on an adaptation of The Collector.

Peter Beard is one of those people I've known a long time. We have an affinity. We share certain values.

Strength is wealth.

Don't rush into any kind of relationship. Work on yourself. Feel yourself, experience yourself and love yourself. Do this first and you will soon attract that special loving other.

Ostensibly rigorous and realistic, contemporary conservatism is an ideology of denial. Its symbol is a smile button.

I dropped out in '64. And I came back to Michigan, in '65. In 1965, when I came back I had never heard of Vietnam.

I love to play music. So why endanger that with something like drugs?

There is no topicmore soporific and generally boring than the topic of Ireland as Ireland, as a nation.

Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death.

Take gifts with a sigh: most men give to be paid.

Well-crafted things inspire me, whether it's pottery or art or music.

Ironically my brother died in a car accident shortly after Airbag was recorded. He's not an identical twin so I didn't care.