I'm not an intellectual composer.

Under my contract with Capitol, I have complete freedom to do just about anything I want in my own way.

You know, they wanted to do a Broadway album and every show was kind of a bomb. There was no music at all.

I'm not an intellectual composer.

Any good music must be an innovation.

I've been down there 6 times and there's nothing like Brazilian percussion.

I don't think the record company is aware of it. Because they just bury my albums and don't release them.

I love doing concert music.

That was when the Spanish came in and conquered the Aztecs. I thought that was a clever thing.

I write emotional music.

I was working all the time I was in college. I was working so much that I could hardly do my college work.

I don't know what the problem with Capitol is. Some one's got to wake 'em up. Prod 'em a little bit.

I did the Broadway album unfortunately in a year when there were no hits.

In a sense, a hit belongs to the person who made it popular, but if a tune is good enough to attain tremendous success, then it certainly deserves more than one version, one treatment, one approach.

I aim my arrangements at what will fit and colorfully frame the song in the best way possible.

Regardless of who originally made it popular, any hit song becomes a challenge to the ingenuity and imagination of other musicians and performers.

Well, that's the secret of commerciality, a simple style and you stick with it.

I don't try to make 15 musicians sound like two each.

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

When I want 30 musicians in the orchestra, I get 30.

I'm very lucky; I have a lot of knowledge. My favorite band is The Beatles, so a lot of inspiration for my music comes from them, too.

Everything was so fresh and unique to us - it was a whole new world of music. Michael Jackson was so fresh, you know? We could approach it with such fresh ears, which wouldn't be possible if we had been listening to it when we were younger.

You spend some time raising a child in London, carrying it around on one side of your body - it puts your back out!

I remember in the early days when we played six nights a week for a month and I was doing my long drum solo every night. My hands were covered in blisters.

I feel really comfortable when it's just me and a guitar. It's special and more vulnerable to strip it down. It can be scary, but it's also empowering.

You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think.

That's like one of the things - you know, being a writer, it's not just like they're constantly like giving you jobs and shows. There was some lean years, man, and - well, a lean year and a half. 'Woe is me.' Right?

Emotion is messy contradictory... and true.

A car is a 2,000 pound projectile that can go 100 miles an hour.

I don't like to be out of my comfort zone, which is about a half an inch wide.

From my films, you can at least learn about Iran, you can get a sense of the history and the society. But no such films have been made about Afghanistan, so you really can't know much about it.

I think I always resented the fact that people thought I was trying to entertain them with my multifaceted, chameleonlike character changes. Although I liked doing that, I wasn't out to fool people and say 'Guess which one is me.'

Indeed, willingness to challenge professional economists and other experts is a foundation stone of democracy. If all we have to do is to listen to the experts, what is the point of having democracy?

Holy service in constant fellowship with God is heaven below.

I am normally the manly-ish girl on the planet.

People who can focus, get things done. People who can prioritize, get the right things done.

It means that no matter what you write, be it a biography, an autobiography, a detective novel, or a conversation on the street, it all becomes fiction as soon as you write it down.

The great man who gives a true transcript of his mind fascinates and instructs. Most writers suppress individuality. They wish to please the public.

People come up to me and they thank me: 'I thank you for the many, many hours of laughter.'

Women's Lib? Oh, I'm afraid it doesn't interest me one bit. I've been so liberated it hurts.

The more I see of democracy the more I dislike it. It just brings everything down to the mere vulgar level of wages and prices, electric light and water closets, and nothing else.

During the fashion month, I have a very busy schedule and not much time to dedicate to my hair, but I cannot neglect it if I want to maintain it healthy and always perfect. Taking care of it with the right products while keeping it healthy allows me to wear strong and shiny hair even without having to avoid experimenting new styles and looks.

My upbringing was absolutely not the archetypal writer's upbringing. Even, arguably, the opposite.

Moderates always seem to deal in hopes rather than in facts.