Art is sort of an experimental station in which one tries out living.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

Everything you do is music, and everywhere is the best seat.

The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.

The world is no longer a romantic place; some of its people still are however, and therein lies the promise. Don't let the world win.

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

Good music can act as a guide to good living.

Look at everything. Don't close your eyes to the world around you. Look and become curious and interested in what there is to see.

Satire is the antidote to Pollyanna and Dr. Pangloss. It focuses our gaze sharply upon the the contrast between things as they are and as they should be.

Can it be believed that the democracy, which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished kings, will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists?

Internationally, I have obviously been deeply concerned about how we fight the terrorist threat.

Drawing on a computer doesn't make any sense to me. It's not intuitive.

I don't want to be this skinny.

For people on social assistance, the loss of free dental care, prescription drugs and subsidized housing can greatly outweigh additional income from working. We've all heard the stories.

Books, I knew then and now, give body to our ideas and imaginations, make them flesh in the world; a bookstore is the city where our fleshed-out inner selves reside.

ObamaCare is a massive budget buster, that it is creating massive deficits in the future. And I really believe it's going to destroy the health care plan, the health care system in America.

Someone stole my heart. I haven't gotten it back, because I haven't found anyone to steal it back for me.

Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.