I come from a part of New York that was almost entirely immigrants. I was born in America, but all of my friends' parents, everybody's parents, including my own, had come to America from Europe.

I became very critical of zoos and circuses and keeping animals in captivity. I wish it was against the law.

I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.

I'm better off not socializing. I make a better impression if I'm not around.

At its best, life is completely unpredictable.

There's something dangerous about what's funny. Jarring and disconcerting. There is a connection between funny and scary.

No, improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.

I try not to worry about things I can't do anything about.

We have no way of knowing what lays ahead for us in the future. All we can do is use the information at hand to make the best decision possible.

I play so many villains and strange, troubled people. I don't have that kind of life. I live in the country. I've been married nearly 50 years. I have a cat.

My father was a lesson. He had his own bakery, and it was closed one day a week, but he would go anyway. He did it because he really loved his bakery. It wasn't a job.

A simple fact that is hard to learn is that the time to save money is when you have some.

Shame is an unhappy emotion invented by pietists in order to exploit the human race.

The nation-state became powerful in the wake of the French Revolution, whereas the nation-state has become powerless in light of globalization.

Freedom from slavery is achieved only when a person starts to feel and understand that he would prefer death to life as a slave.

The power of the visible is the invisible.

Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation.

In the end, reconciliation is a spiritual process, which requires more than just a legal framework. It has to happen in the hearts and minds of people.

It is not the accumulation of extraneous knowledge, but the realization of the self within, that constitutes true progress.

Not surprisingly, the chief way self-published authors get the word out about their books is through the Internet.

No one is wise by birth, for wisdom results from one own's efforts.