I am not anti-American. But I am strongly pro-Canadian.

I am not anti-American. But I am strongly pro-Canadian.

The Liberals are the flying saucers of politics. No one can make head nor tail of them and they never are seen twice in the same place.

Although I am 92, my brain is 30 years old.

Perhaps there’s no better act of simplification than climbing a mountain. For an afternoon, a day, or a week, it’s a way of reducing a complicated life into a simple goal. All you have to do is take one step at a time, place one foot in front of the other, and refuse to turn back until you’ve given everything you have.

We're a country of rule of law, and rule of law doesn't move fast, especially in an entity as big the U.S. government.

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

If you are a writer or any kind of artist, if you change something as fundamental as where you live - the way you live - then I think you change the very instrument that is trying to make the art.

I was really surprised at the success of 'House of Sand and Fog,' because it is so awfully dark. Believe it or not, when writing it, I never had the word 'tragedy' in my head - I wasn't trying to write a dark book at all.

Oh, my career. What career? I'm over 40.

I was inspired by a lot of people when I was young. Every band that came through town, to the theater, or the dance hall. I was at every dance, every night club, listened to every band that came through, because in those days we didn't have MTV, we didn't have television.

I think as an investigative reporter I had tough standards, but I don't think of myself as a tough person.

I didn't do anything for two years but work on 'Gone Baby Gone,' and it was miserable and hard, but at the end? It is a good movie. I liked it very much. If it had been dismissed and deemed worthless, it would been definitely devastating. But that didn't happen.

Americans are in a cycle of fear which leads to people not wanting to spend and not wanting to make investments, and that leads to more fear. We'll break out of it. It takes time.

If you have the insight of non-self, if you have the insight of impermanence, you should make that insight into a concentration that you keep alive throughout the day. Then what you say, what you think, and what you do will then be in the light of that wisdom and you will avoid making mistakes and creating suffering.

The true and the approximately true are apprehended by the same faculty; it may also be noted that men have a sufficient natural instinct for what is true, and usually do arrive at the truth. Hence the man who makes a good guess at truth is likely to make a good guess at probabilities.

At some point, you grow out of being attracted to that flame that burns you over and over and over again.

When I'm grateful for all the blessings, it puts away all the stress about things not in my control. Things like long hours, aging, pollution, scandals... it helps me create perspective by just focusing on being grateful. Take that moment twice a day with yourself.

Life is too complex to compress into soundbites. Every situation is different.

A pound invested in energy efficiency buys seven times more energy solution than a pound invested in nuclear power.

Rock music is not meant to be perfect.

A Kung Fu Master is a Practitioner of Martial Arts Who Keeps Practicing.

Writers can take offense when someone asks what's real or autobiographical in our work because, to us, that's not what counts. The bits taken from life are tiny scales on the dragon's tail - what about that whole beautiful writhing, fire-breathing dragon?

We lived and breathed acting.

That was very difficult for me on 'American Idol' to feel like I had to be a certain way. It wasn't that the producers were saying that you shouldn't be gay or whatever, but there was this unspoken energy around saying you have to appeal to Middle America, and Middle America at that point was not ready for all that.

Dont undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Any time you got nothing to do - and lots of time to do it - come on up.

When I am in Egypt, I am along for the ride - I am a privileged outsider, but an outsider nonetheless.