I had to marry a Greek; I had to stir up the ethnic pot. Otherwise, my children would have been anemic and sickly. Now theyve got some good Mediterranean blood in them.

I come from a very la-ti-da East Coast intellectual family - or so they think.

I grew up in that world of power and politics in Washington, but when you grow up around it, you are completely unfazed by it.

The motive behind criticism often determines its validity. Those who care criticize where necessary. Those who envy criticize the moment they think that they have found a weak spot.

I want people to be overwhelmed with light and color in a way they have never experienced.

The Germans would appear as the disturbers of peace, as they already do to some people, merely because they were the first to take the path along which all the others were ultimately to follow.

Nobody ever rioted for austerity.

With Shakespeare, if you're not going to do the iambic pentameter, do some other play.

People don't just want to feel satisfied. They actually want to act.

Dispassion and humility lead to spiritual knowledge. Without them no one will see the Lord.

Some jobs are just too hideous to contemplate.

When you grow up in a totally segregated society, where everybody around you believes that segregation is proper, you have a hard time. You can't believe how much it's a part of your thinking.

My parents are really well intended, and I think their way of dealing with things is denial and guilt. Nobody wanted to talk about it. But all I did was blame myself.