I always learned to be philanthropic... to give back.

We used to listen to all the marvelous operas on records. Music was a very important part of our lives.

You can take wonderfully talented actors, wonderfully talented writers and producers, and, uh, do a wonderful show!... but if it doesn't hit with the public in two minutes, it's bye-bye.

They very seldom let me lose my cool. They made me like I was Polly Perfect, which was ridiculous so that when I bump into kids on the street they'd say 'I wish my Mom were like you.'

I always learned to be philanthropic... to give back.

Because of the power of television, I was visible to everybody all over the world. But there are many things in the theater that are more fulfilling and that I look forward to doing more. But really, I love it all: theater, film, television.

People may be said to resemble not the bricks of which a house is build but the pieces of a picture puzzle each differing in shape but matching the rest and thus bringing out the picture.

It is better to make an irrational noise in a bush than in a desert.

Sometimes I think things happen for a reason... And I think if we're meant to run into each other again, fate will make it happen.

What I knew was I liked math and science, and I never wanted to memorize everything. I wanted to understand where it came from.

I guess the two Manifesto, Communicating Vessels, Mad Love, and some of his poetry made a significant mark on me but as far as bringing a literary element into the music I see it as a much broader assimilation.

Street protests in Saudi Arabia might warm our hearts, but they could easily lead to $250 a barrel oil and a global recession.

People are tired of seeing politicians as all talk and no action.

I had always sort of done dramatic things, and I love them; it's my background. But when I think about 'Fresh Meat,' I just think about the cast and the crew that we had... we just had a great time.

I believe indeterminate sentencing can be extremely useful, but I also believe that any such system should always take into consideration the special knowledge as to the facts in a case which only the trial judge possesses.

The seed for my novel 'Half Brother' was planted in my mind over twenty years ago, but didn't germinate until late 2007 when I came across the obituary for Washoe, an extraordinary chimpanzee who had learned over 250 words of American Sign Language.

When we say 'democracy' we have to mean what we say.

There are two kinds of people; those who are always well and those who are always sick. Most of the evils of the world come from the first sort and most of the achievement from the second.

A common price isn't the lowest price. It will most obviously be the highest price.

Trading is more or less like betting or gambling, but only without the pleasure show of the game.

The Pre-Raphaelites, while very bothered by what the establishment thought of them, also utterly rebelled against it. In everything - social, sexual, emotional - they were out on a limb, pushing the boundaries.

When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it.

You can't trick The Universe - it's like Santa Claus that way.

Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find the bread.

I'm very comfortable discussing my personal life, because it's so boring.

My inners are not organs. They're actually mechanics, so I have a hole in my back, wind me up like the movie 'Hugo,' and then just say, 'Act,' you know?

In a banana republic, one might slip on a banana peel but things do work - now and then for the people, albeit inefficiently and unreliably.

Coming out with records when you're in a big, successful group that plays stadiums, that's scary to come out by yourself.

In two decades I've lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.

All you have to do is know where you're going. The answers will come to you of their own accord.