A conductor can't be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap.

Life's too short to deal with other people's insecurities.

No expectations. Ask nothing, expect nothing and accept everything, and life is very well.

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

I don't believe in nepotism. I don't much like the idea of parents who interfere.

Relish everything that's inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

The whole point of courage, to overcome your fear. That's the interesting thing, when courage bleeds through the fear.

I always liked to take the plunge, you know, I'd jump in at the deep end and hope that I'd find land somehow, or hope I'd float or survive. That's more or less the way I've gone through my life.

You're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?

He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.

You become a man not when you reach a certain age, but when you reach a certain state of mind.

God, he was probably too young to be this old, but life had a way of being about experience, rather than calendar days.

People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams.

One of the first things I look for in a woman I meet is a sense of humor, a sort of light acceptance of the world and the people who live in it.

The roots of all commonwealth are planted in the understanding that we are all the same human beings.

Muhammad is more human, more self-doubting, even self-tortured at times. His story is full of adventure, intrigue, betrayal.

My position has always been, along with many other people, that any differences be resolved in a nonviolent way.

We deliberately chose a small theatre so that the show was still intimate and the audience would become a part of the show.

I think living with the absence of someone we love is like living in front of a mountain from which a person - a speck in the distance, on some distance ridge - is perpetually waving.