Congratulations, " I tell her with a slight bow. "I hope you and your power trip will be very happy together. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to go.

Power has always corrupted, my dear. Even the promise of power. It is a hard thing to look at through the fence for hundreds of years without wondering what it would be like on the other side.

Friends help each other when they are...you know...going up international hit men and stuff.

Keep your chin up. Eventually, you will meet someone who cares about your opinion. I'm so sorry I'm not her.

I have to smile. He's such a dork. But I'm starting to realize the one good thing that's happened: he's my dork.

No! I need to go home, " I say, but then the realization comes: My mother was my home. My mother is dead.

She really wants to be my friend, I realize, and suddenly I feel very sorry for her. She doesn't know what a terrible thing it is she's asking for.

One of the highest marks of citizenship is fighting for the common defense.

I make the choice because it is one I can live with.

If you are inclined to leave your character solitary for any considerable length of time, better question yourself. Fiction is association, not withdrawal.

And then there was my mate who'd just been fitted with a brand new hearing aid. "It's the best in the world", he said. "What type is it?", I asked and he said "ten past twelve".

I've been smoking nearly 50 years now. I just don't feel safe breathing anything I can't see!

When I'm playing a part, I can feel all my body playing it; it's like really making love.

A picture should be a re-creation of an event rather than an illustration of an object; but there is no tension in the picture unless there is a struggle with the object.

the ancient people perceived the world and themselves within that world as part of an ancient continuous story composed of innumerable bundles of other stories.

We've let too much time go by. We've been busy with war instead of being busy with peace. And that's what space travel is all about. It's all about peace and exploration and wonder and beauty.

Vladimir Putin is a dictator. He's not a leader. Anybody who thinks otherwise doesn't know Russian history and they don't know Vladimir Putin.