We're not getting any younger.

People are usually afraid to say what's on their mind.

I had trouble distinguishing art from life. I don't now, and I feel much better!

I like it when songs develop in some way. Four minutes usually isn't enough time for something to develop musically.

I have a critical nature, in the sense that when I look at something I often look for the flaws.

We're not getting any younger.

What do you do with what you're given, and how do you transform it into something worthwhile?

When you get a groove going, time flies.

Anthemic rock music is inherently fascist - anything intended to move huge masses of people is politically offensive to me.

I took some lessons as a kid but trained myself by ear. I did it the way jazz musicians used to learn years ago, which is to play records and slow them down to figure out the notes. At first I tried to imitate Red Garland, who was my favorite jazz pianist.

I've never been comfortable as a lead performer, and I never wanted to be a singer, particularly.

My style is a little quirky. I can't play as fast as most professional jazz players.

My writing is really intuitive. As a kid, I went to school in New Jersey and hung out in New York, so the way kids used to talk got into our earlier songs.

Popularity has everything to do with business and nothing to do with music.

Randy Newman seemed like an even worse singer than me. I liked Ray Charles, Levi Stubbs, Jack Jones, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett.

The opportunity to be a star chef, to imagine it would be here in Las Vegas, I couldn't comprehend it.

I obviously prefer writing novels but I take my journalism very seriously, and I enjoy doing it between novels. It gives me an opportunity to move in the outside world.

It’s not about having time. It’s about making time.

The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size.

If Antarctica were music it would be Mozart. Art, and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare. And yet it is something even greater; the only place on earth that is still as it should be. May we never tame it.

You can only sit on the frustration of wanting to express something for so long.

Fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

No good case exists for the inequality of real and intellectual property, because no good case can exist for treating with special disfavor the work of the spirit and the mind.

My house was full of music. My main memories are of the record player at home: it was all Beatles and Rolling Stones, and we danced around the living room; that started me off on instruments, and I've done nothing else ever since.

There is no way for the American economic system to function without advertising. There is no other way to communicate enough information about enough products to enough people with enough speed.

It's hard to believe President George Bush gave a speech in New Orleans about disaster recovery and failed to mention the word 'farm' or the word 'rural.'

I love seeing people be successful! I love that. It's wonderful. There's enough room for everybody.

Life is about balance. Be kind but dont let people abuse you. Trust but dont be deceived. Be content but never stop improving yourself.

Pleasure is labour too, and tires as much.

The difference is too nice - Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

I played Laura Bush in a Tony Kushner piece, and afterward, I think my phones got tapped.

I had a situation where Bill Clinton sent the F.B.I. after me.

I don't know if we are the best team in the world. I am lucky to be playing alongside some of the best players around. It's a dream.

Find something you love and go for it with all your heart. No excuses, no plan B. Never settle for anything less than you know you can do.It will be hard, but I promise it will be worth it.

We are not a country that subscribes to policing any part of the world. The areas we are comfortable with are capacity building, intelligence sharing, exchange of ships, call on each other's ports, joint training and exercises.

I think I'm a good judge of character.

I've always had a love affair with New York City, and I've threatened to get an apartment there one day. But it just made sense for me to set 'Burlesque' on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. It's a place I know intimately well and love, and I think there's a great story to be told with L.A.

The thing about owls is that they do sort of have this facial disc, which is unlike any other bird. They kind of have a face, more than like a dog or a giraffe. They have this weird, alien face that you can actually make expressive.

Terrorism must be outlawed by all civilized nations, not explained or rationalized, but fought and eradicated. Nothing can, nothing will justify the murder of innocent people and helpless children.