Critics are more committed to the rules of art than artists are.

Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.

When Medusa looks in the mirror, she sees the Lady of Sorrows.

My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet.

Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth

The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.

Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.

The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.

'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'

Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.

Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.

I never could bear the idea of anyone's expecting something from me. Italways made me want to do just the opposite.

You ain't get nothing for staying low, lazy. The world only tremble at the feet of the few craziest doers ever lived.

I wanted to be your Hero

Imagine a vast ocean. Feel that you are part of that ocean. Imagine that each wave in the ocean is slowly moving through you. Feel that each wave is a wave of joy.

I don't think about commercial concerns when I first come up with something. When I sit down at the piano, I try to come up with something that moves me.

Some fool aims to go to heaven; some clever knows that there isn't any; and some intelligent tries to create one with his own effort! Be intelligent!

If you cannot prove a man wrong, don't panic. You can always call him names.

One thing my dad always told me, was he would make sure I always had what he didn't have. He couldn't play basketball because he didn't have tennis shoes - so I had five pairs of tennis shoes.

Yes, after some time spent last year on other commitments, most of them speaking engagements, I am now about halfway through a novel that I hope will come out in 1998.

Another difference between death and taxes is that you don't have to work like fury to pay for the dying you did last year.