I have been both overpraised and underpraised. I assume by the time I finish writing -- and I plan to go on writing until I'm 90 or gaga -- it will all equal itself out.

If you're willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly.

The arts are the only things that separate us from the other animals. The arts are not decorative. ... They are essential to our comprehension of consciousness and ourselves.

Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.

Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn't matter.

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf means who's afraid of the big bad wolf ... who's afraid of living life without false illusions.

You're alive only once, as far as we know, and what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn't lived it?

You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are.

One must let the play happen to one; one must let the mind loose to respond as it will, to receive impressions, to sense rather than know, to gather rather than immediately understand.

School curricula that ignore the arts produce highly educated Barbarians

People have been murdered over cartoons. End of moral analysis.

We can always redeem the man who aspires and strives.

You know, I have a kid on my own, and I know how busy it is, the first weeks and the first month.

The human mind, in taking us down the path of technocracy, has become the adversary of life itself and collaterally the adversary of the human soul.

When a man gives himself up to the government of a ruling passion,--or, in other words, when his HOBBY-HORSE grows head- strong,--farewell cool reason and fair discretion.

I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner.

No matter how long what I'm doing here lasts, I want to be a songwriter for the rest of my life. I love it and it's my escape.

The possibility of bringing white-collar criminals to justice is ever receding over the horizon.

For anyone approaching any one of the cast albums, if they don't like what they hear, it's not the performer's fault.

The star shines for everyone in the world, but in reality, it itself is surrounded in darkness.