Whoever undertakes to create soon finds himself engaged in creating himself.

No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating.

The story of Americans is the story of arrested metamorphoses. Those who achieve success come to a halt and accept themselves as they are. Those who fail become resigned and accept themselves as they are.

American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.

They had enough. They wanted to enjoy their life.

The aim of every authentic artist is not to conform to the history of art, but to release himself from it in order to replace it with his own history.

The values to which the conservative appeals are inevitably caricatured by the individuals designated to put them into practice.

Whoever undertakes to create soon finds himself engaged in creating himself.

The differences between revolution in art and revolution in politics are enormous. Revolution in art lies not in the will to destroy but in the revelation of what has already been destroyed. Art kills only the dead.

The purpose of education is to keep a culture from being drowned in senseless repetitions, each of which claims to offer a new insight.

America is the civilization of people engaged in transforming themselves. In the past, the stars of the performance were the pioneer and the immigrant. Today, it is youth and the Black.

What better way to prove that you understand a subject than to make money out of it?

A painting that is an act is inseparable from the biography of the artist.

It is not logical for art to be logical. Art goes against the grain of the times as readily as it goes with it and at the very same moment. Instead of seeking the nearest exit, art responds to a new situation by uncovering a labyrinth of problems.

I wouldn't trade my life for anybody's.

I'd met a woman and I got married, but the money ran out right away. I hadn't had a job for seven months, and it just came over me that I was never going to work again. It hit me.

Look, I'm not a perfect person. I have my warts. I sometimes say things that get me in trouble. I wear suits that are cheap. But I say what I think and I believe what I say, and I'm willing to say things that are not popular but ordinary people know are right.

If you tell a joke in the forest, but nobody laughs, was it a joke?

You fake something until you're good at it.

Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

I don't see myself ever retiring, unless it's for something that I like better, and so far I like directing a lot but I don't see the necessity to retire from anything unless there's a really great alternative.

If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.

When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it's like giving them emotional oxygen.

I keep referring to them in the plural but all I'm dealing with is Bob. I don't know where Harvey fits in the equation. He was very present at the beginning, winding his brother up. I don't know where he is now.

We have almost a city has probably two or three hundred committees. Every committee is dealing with just one problem and has nothing to do with the other problems.

The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private rights.

I majored in industrial design/painting, but haven't had time to exercise that creativity.

On our show, I've only reached out and touched about 55 guys. I think there's still about 40 million.

It makes it fun. When an actor plays a character, you want what that character wants. Otherwise it doesn't look authentic. So I really want to defeat Jimmy - I mean Jimmy as the character.

Prophecy today is hardly the romantic business that it used to be. The old tools of the trade, like the sword, the hair shirt, and the long fast in the wilderness, have given way to more contemporary, mundane instruments of doom --the book, the picket and the petition, the sit-in at City Hall.

There are a lot of guys who play in the NBA. There aren't a lot of guys who have a chance to win a gold medal, too.

We can't control what thoughts and emotions arise within us, nor can we control the universal truth that everything changes. But we can learn to step back and rest in the awareness of what's happening. That awareness can be our refuge.

I like tattoos. I'm gonna be covered. I'm not going to touch my face or under the chin on the neck: it's my least favorite place.

Avoid using cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs as alternatives to being an interesting person.

The only thing I really, really want is for the U.S. to win again. Just to win another team gold. And, of course I would really want to win an all-around gold.

If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.

I get a lot of letters. Not only from children but from adults, too. Almost every week, every month, clippings come in from some part of the world where ducks are crossing the street.

No sooner than I did take it seriously, I had million-selling hits and movies with John Wayne.