You have to, at least from a distance, look as if you know what you're doing, and I can manage that.

My parents were worried about me, certainly when I became so deeply interested in music and people like the New York Dolls who, at the time, were very peculiar indeed.

Not everybody is absolutely stupid. Why on earth would I be racist, what would I be trying to achieve?

You have to, at least from a distance, look as if you know what you're doing, and I can manage that.

That was the problem with the 'celibate' word because they don't consider for a moment that you'd rather not be, but you just are. I was never a sexual person.

Artists aren't really people. And I'm actually 40 per cent papier mache.

When I'm lying in my bed I think about life and I think about death and neither one particularly appeals to me.

Age shouldn't affect you. It's just like the size of your shoes - they don't determine how you live your life! You're either marvellous or you're boring, regardless of your age.

I normally live in Los Angeles, if you can call it normal living.

The Smiths was an incredibly personal thing to me. It was like launching your own diary to music.

I do think it's possible to go through life and never fall in love, or find someone who loves you.

I've never intended to be controversial but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.

Age gives you a great sense of proportion. You can be very hard on yourself when you're younger but now I just think 'well everybody's absolutely mad and I'm doing quite well'.

That's why I do this music business thing, it's communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.

Long hair is an unpardonable offense which should be punishable by death.

The fascinating thing about human beings is that they dont last and everything eventuates and everything is very very brief. And even if you do manage to look reasonably well as you age unfortunately you are attacked at every level by illness and so forth. Its a fact of life.

Why pamper life’s complexities when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?

When you re read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before.

The greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough.

The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.

I was on the state board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The enemy resembles us. Therefore, he needs to be approached not as an assembly of 'targets' to be destroyed one by one; but as a living, intelligent entity capable of acting and reacting.

I don't think there is one cause of Gulf War illness.

As a writer, being on the set of 'Gravity' was such a surreal experience. It was nice to see them using the technology to translate what we had on the page.

Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, dreams are forever.

That's the way I work and one day I won't have the energy to do it, so I think it's always good to make the most of your life and living as much as possible.

The meaning of life is to find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away.

Each record is sort of like a brand new baby, where it's your favorite thing at that moment in time.

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

Huge numbers of embassy cables are labeled 'unclassified' or 'limited official use' and deal with mundane matters.

Gay people got a right to be as miserable as everybody else.

It horrifies me how much it costs to put on shows now, mainly due to EU regulations. The freedom to be entrepreneurial is no longer there. It's a massive business now.

If I do have kids, I can't wait because I'm excited to go back to school to help them with their homework and remember how to do simple math. I think it's about staying curious and not losing the sense of wonder.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

TV ushered in the age of postliteracy. And we have gone so far beyond that. I mean, what with the Internet and Google and Wikipedia. We have entered the age of post-intelligence.

I will sign pro life bills. But what people are interested in is what we can do to create jobs, grow the economy, and keep our costs under control.

Theater has to resonate in your heart in a way that movies don't.

In spite of the Depression, or maybe because of it, folks were hungry for a good time, and an evening of dancing seemed a good way to have it.

I would've loved Jack Kennedy. I would've loved to have campaigned for him and supported him. I wish there were more like him today.

OkCupid has users from 18 to 80 on the site. And we get to observe all of their actions. We get to watch how they use the site, how they interact with other people.

I'm sure that my wanting to be an actor had to do with a need for approval.