As long as art lives never shall I accept that men are truly dead.

Inspiration demands the active cooperation of the intellect joined with enthusiasm, and it is under such conditions that marvelous conceptions, with all that is excellent and divine, come into being.

Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands.

Drawing is the necessary beginning of everything [in Art], and not having it, one has nothing.

Man was not then considered a good goldsmith unless he could draw well.

Every time you go to see Hamlet you don't expect it to have a happy ending...you're still enthralled.(Interview BBC Radio 4 Today 17 October 2012.)

You can't fake listening. It shows.

I never thought of myself as a writer about religion until a religion came after me.

How softly summer shuts, without the creaking of a door.

Self-education is a continuing source of pleasure to me, for the more I know, the fuller my life is and the better I appreciate my own existence

The wonderful thing about films is how they can be understood by so many different people on so many different levels.

My time with Ferrari was wonderful. I have found friends and had experiences that I would not want to be without.

My only real claim to anyone's attention lies in my writing

Holiness gives us new desires and brings old desires into line with one another.

Oh, I was super serious about practicing and rudiments, and still am. I still have all my books.