An angel has no memory.

I met The Beatles and Stones at the same time, because Michael Cooper was doing several of their album covers.

When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor.

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.

I'm not interested in attacking, I'm interested in astonishing.

Someone wrote a piece about Henry Green in The Partisan Review that was so intriguing that I got one of his novels, Loving, I believe, which was the first that came to attention in the United States.

There is no power on earth that can loosen a man's grip on his own throat

In that sense, film is superior, but the difficulty is your lack of control as a writer.

You can't do the end of the world in a conventionally dramatic way or Boy Meets Girl way.

When I finally made it to the set, I spent a lot of time doing damage control on The Magic Christian.

After Strangelove I also started work on an adaptation of The Collector.

I was like I was in science class: I was curious.

I’m honored if I can inspire somebody else.

If you join a fight for social justice you may win or lose, but just by being part of the struggle, you win, and your life will be better for it.

I care more about the people than about the company. That's why I don't want to own it. I don't want to run a business. People do it better than I do.

The strange thing about writing is that it's so easy to write a novel. It is really easy. But it's getting there to the point where it's easy that's hard. The hard part is to get there.

Like jilted and disappointed lovers, some of my students just want to be left alone.

I was ever the realist, sometimes to my sorrow. But seldom to my regret.

The essence of parenthood is to make children think that they are the most handsome, intelligent, brilliant person in the world.

Such ever was love's way: to rise, it stoops.

Doubt . . . impels a search for the truth. It opens the door to knowledge. Faith puts a lock on the door. Indeed, . . . faith anesthetizes the desire to seek knowledge and truth.