There is no top. There are always further heights to reach.

I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.

There is no top. There are always further heights to reach.

No matter what side of an argument you're on, you always find some people on your side that wish you were on the other side.

If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.

The fitness builds the foundation for me as an actor to have clarity. Fitness has always been the base of where I start off as a performer.

Positive thinking must be followed by positive doing.

Tapas is a celebration of life.

My stand-up has always been very character-based. I'm not really the kind of person that's like, 'Hey, here's what's on my mind! Tip your waitress!' I would create the jokes based on the character I was playing. It was always a performance-based thing for me.

I've been around a while. I kinda know these things.

I've permitted myself to learn and to fail with some regularity. And that is probably the one thing I was given, and that I'm still grateful for.

The miners lost because they had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets. In the end, bayonets always win.

I never thought that I would have to play an Indian, well half French, but an Indian woman in my life.

I think it's a sensible thing not to read your fan mail - not to take it too seriously.

My record was so bad that I was first rejected by the Peace Corps as a poor risk and possible troublemaker and was accepted as a volunteer only after a great deal of explaining and arguing.

I think I would struggle with any job if it was purely about effects. Even as a viewer, those aren't the kind of things that interest me.

I want my girls to be strong and self-sufficient.

The collapse of Russia was the second great event of 1917.

People and their religions don't affect me.

I'm very sensitive. Because my mum was my primary emotional caregiver growing up, I found myself being pinned into dresses, darting her dresses, choosing her high heels for the evening or what to wear. I'm very much a mommy's boy.

An athletic man, or whatever you want to call him, will only look good in a very classic suit, a pair of classic jeans, athletic clothes or simply naked. Forget fashion. This is not going to happen, unless you want to look like a Chippendales dancer in designer clothes.

The key to change... is to let go of fear.

I think for women especially, you need to have a plan. I need to have some other ways to generate income, so I don't have to stretch my face or lift the top of my head with surgery or something.

The tears of the world are a constant quality. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.

I do think there is a lot of potential if you have a compelling product and people are willing to pay a premium for that. I think that is what Apple has shown. You can buy a much cheaper cell phone or laptop, but Apple's product is so much better than the alternative, and people are willing to pay that premium.

I look upon it as a Point of Morality, to be obliged by those who endeavour to oblige me.

The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.

When the whole world reads your books, is there any other happiness for a writer? I am happy that my books are read in 57 languages. But I am focused on Istanbul not because of Istanbul but because of humanity. Everyone is the same in the end.

What has 'The Patchwork Girl of Oz' got in its favor? Quite a lot, from our point of view in 2009. If you want to see how Oz's creator envisioned his own work, here it is.