Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

Toil is man's allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that's more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.

Meditation and water are wedded for ever.

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up.

War should be carried on like a monsoon; one changeless determination of every particle towards the one unalterable aim.

It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.

Life is filled with endless opportunities.

Our nannas are losers.

~[My daughter is] very artistic, but she's also a perfectionist. I feel a little bad: That's the part I see in her that's like me - and you don't want them to have that at age 5.~

Surely the world we live in is but the world that lives in us.

Yes, it's quite amazing how I continue to shock my mother even after all these years together

The Medici made me and the Medici destroyed me.

For me, there's always a huge attraction in playing real people. But with it comes an incredible sense of responsibility because you're playing a real person in a real event.

Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.

I'm such a control freak, and it's very hard for me to lose my inhibitions without something chemical inside me.

I never directly think of certain films. I know I am influenced by all the films I see.