Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.

It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it.

The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.

Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere.

It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief.

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.

We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.

What marks the artist is his power to shape the material of pain we all have.

We are all ill: but even a universal sickness implies an idea of health.

The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.

The immature artist imitates. Mature artists steal.

We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us.

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.

This is the great vice of academicism, that it is concerned with ideas rather than with thinking.

The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.

Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.

Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

Youth is a time when we find the books we give up but do not get over.

There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.

The poet is in command of his fantasy while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.

Fashion is that thing that saved me from being sad.

The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.

We need spies that look like their targets, CIA officers who speak the dialects terrorists use, and FBI agents who can speak to Muslim women who might be intimidated by men.

Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take with us.

Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment put your head down and plow ahead.

There have never been so many women in the music industry, but they're doing ballads and pop. Where's the new Joan Jetts and the Wanda Jacksons and the Debbie Harrys, all these strong women? I wanna be the woman that rocks.

Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance dignity and meaning in their job.

Genre boundaries are good for marketing but they all but disappear when you're a player.

I hope that when you see my work, you are looking at yourself looking.

You cannot separate any part from the whole: interdependence rules the cosmic order.

My inspiration comes from my real life experiences.

Friendship isnt about whom you have known the longest. Its about who came and never left your side.

When I found out about the audition, I knew that I was going in for 'From Dusk Till Dawn,' but I actually didn't know that I was going to be reading with Robert Rodriguez.

You know, I've never actually really believed that death is inevitable. I just think it's a rumor.

My son is becoming me - just a silly, silly prankster guy.

Jack Dempsey and I became friends in the very early 1920s.

My older sister is bossy, my brother is a stirrer and me - well, I am perfect!

We need to keep in mind the well-established fact that the full effects of monetary policy are felt only after long lags. This means that policy makers cannot wait until they have achieved their objectives to begin adjusting policy.

Get the right people. Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That's what management is all about.

I think being on a set where people aren't being treated as equals, and with just a common level of decency and respect, is really uncomfortable.

It really pains me greatly to hear from graduate students that graduate education is a lower priority here.

Preparation doesn't assures victory, it assures confidence.

I love playing a role, anything that's dramatic. I'm enjoying living that kind of life: being someone else, getting to die, being a temptress. I enjoy being someone else on stage.

The entire educational process must be carried out with love, which is perceptible in every disciplinary measure and which does not instill any fear. And the most effective educational method is not the word of instruction but the living example without which all words remain useless.