I am putting real plums into an imaginary cake.

Every age has a keyhole to which its eye is pasted.

In science, all facts, no matter how trivial or banal, enjoy democratic equality.

In violence, we forget who we are.

The suspense of a novel is not only in the reader, but in the novelist, who is intensely curious about what will happen to the hero.

Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.

Being abroad makes you conscious of the whole imitative side of human behavior. The ape in man.

We are the hero of our own story.

I suppose everyone continues to be interested in the quest for the self, but what you feel when you're older, I think, is that you really must make the self.

The American character looks always as if it had just had a rather bad haircut, which gives it, in our eyes at any rate, a greater humanity than the European, which even among its beggars has an all too professional air.

The theater is the only branch of art much cared for by people of wealth; like canasta, it does away with the brother of talk after dinner.

Is it really so difficult to tell a good action from a bad one? I think one usually knows right away or a moment afterward, in a horrid flash of regret.

Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.

Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a "work" of man.

When an American heiress wants to buy a man, she at once crosses the Atlantic. The only really materialistic people I have ever met have been Europeans.

Europe is the unfinished negative of which America is the proof.

Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the.

The labor of keeping house is labor in its most naked state, for labor is toil that never finishes, toil that has to be begun again the moment it is completed, toil that is destroyed and consumed by the life process.

In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.

The immense popularity of American movies abroad demonstrates that Europe is the unfinished negative of which America is the proof.

I'm afraid I'm not sufficiently inhibited about the things that other women are inhibited about for me. They feel that you've given away trade secrets.

I am putting real plums into an imaginary cake.

People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children.

Life for the European is a career; for the American it is a hazard.

If someone tells you he is going to make a "realistic decision," you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad.

You musn't force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex.

We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story.

If someone tells you he is going to make a 'realistic decision', you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad.

Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a 'work' of man.

When was the last time someone told you 'Look at the bright side of things' when you were depressed, and you actually paid attention to them? Maybe some people do, but I sure as hell don't.

Jesus represents the possibilities of a new dimension of existence that transcends all the boundaries that restrict us from opening ourselves to God and allowing this source of love to flow through us.

I never thought I was going to be a singer. That was an accident.

I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.

No parent is there forever. So I won't be here forever with these kids.

Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.

There's the fact that animation is extremely time-consuming, tedious, labor-intensive, and therefore, extremely expensive as an art form to really do it right, to really do full animation.

2009 was crazy enough! I can't believe I worked with Jeremy Irons, Joan Allen, Marsha Mason, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury, Jack O'Brien and Trevor Nunn in the same 12 months.

I wonder that among all the evils deprecated in the Liturgy, no one thought of inserting flitting. Is there any worse thing? Oh no, no!

Style is made up of whatever an author can't avoid doing.

Hal Ashby is one of my favorite filmmakers.

I wish we could begin a new period of normal relations with the government of the United States.

When I'm on the couch, I usually have the TV on and my MacBook Air nearby. And sometimes, when my ADD is really kicking in, I have my iPad too. And my iPhone. And a magazine that I haven't gotten to. And a book under the pillow to my left.

Every dude needs a well tailored suit. I'd say well tailored suit, a leather jacket, and a pair of jeans that really fit are vital in your wardrobe.

Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror.

W. P. Kinsella, who was born on a farm near Edmunton, Alberta, has earned wide recognition for his wild imagination and rash humor as a writer.

All the wonders you seek are within yourself.

You could have another downgrade. You could certainly have a stock market reaction that would be negative. And, I think nobody who looks at it objectively would want to happen.

I have to do a better job of learning how to adjust.

Most of all, I love unfussy, unpretentious, simple food made with excellent ingredients. If I'm a snob, it's about quality, not cuisine.