I feel like a man who has had truckloads of filth heaped upon him; I am now asked to struggle to my feet and talk while more truckloads pour more filth around my head.

You believe in freedom of speech for communists because what they say is true. You do not believe in freedom of speech for fascists because what they say is a lie.

Eating liver out of a cow's body is like eating the filter out of a car.

But I also made it clear to him [Vladimir Putin] that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe.

Experiences with Angels do not occur to people by chance. There is a sort of run-up to the experience.

The quieting of our mind is a political act.

When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable If I have not an excellent library.

I don't really think about retiring. I will retire just before people start saying, 'I knew Leonard Slatkin when he conducted well.

I write every day as a matter of course It is not a burden. It is the way I live.

I do not pretend that I have led a blameless life, or that one fault justifies another, but the public in judging a case like mine should remember that the darkest life may have a bright side...

Acting is constant exploration.

Wisdom is neither gold, nor silver, nor fame, nor wealth, nor health, nor strength, nor beauty.