I am never more myself than in my self-betrayals.

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.

A president's hardest task is not to do what's right but to know what's right.

I love surfing, rock climbing, cycling - all that stuff. But it's just amazing that I can inspire people with my running. It's humbling, really.

Fear is a killer, when it comes to the creative process.

Chaos and ineptitude are anti-human; but so too is a superlatively efficient government, equipped with all the products of a highly developed technology.

If you start to just aim for what the audience wants to hear, you're already hamstrung because you don't have any freedom.

The public citizenship oath done in a court in front of a judge and one's fellow citizens should be done publicly.

Whether you can go back in time is held in the grip of the law of quantum gravity. We are several decades away from a definitive understanding, 20 or 30 years, but it could be sooner than that.

Forgiveness is a scalpel that removes emotional scars.

I often feel that my life, much like my shows, will end on a cliffhanger.

What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it is another matter.