I have nothing but respect for the purist who won't work for the pharaoh. But I'm not that strong.

Experience as much as you can and absorb a lot of reality. Otherwise, your writing will have the force of a Wiffle ball.

If there's reason for hope, it lies in man's occasional binges of cooperation. To save our planet, we'll need that kind of heroic effort, in which all types of people join forces for the common good

There's a built-up tension in religion, and if you can release it, you'll get a huge and satisfying laugh.

Every joke can't be dazzling. And if you think you spotted an inconsistency, you did!

I was brought up Catholic and, of course, I strayed and repudiated it. That's a painful thing to go through, because you have to look back and realize that you wasted a gigantic chunk of your life.

I have a deep suspicion of social institutions and tradition in general.

There's absolutely no way that something I do on my own is going to be seen in Malaysia.

I resisted parenthood for a long, long time. But having a daughter has given me a sense of hopefulness that I didn't have before.

Clever is the eunuch version of funny.

I don't like the antagonism that most religions have for science, and freedom and, frankly, individuality. I do like the Dalai Lama.

The first thing I do when I start my day is, I get down on my hands and knees and give thanks to God. Whenever I go outside of my house, the first thing I do is stop at the church.

I even got a letter from a young woman in British Columbia that began as follows: 'Today I am eighteen. I am sitting at the window, looking out at the rain, and thinking how much I love you.'

To do something that will just fly away is kind of special. Every time somebody tell you they love you, that "I love you" flies away, and you wait until the next one.

I don't wave a flag for anything. I'm a musician.

Cloning looks like a degrading of parenthood and a perversion of the right relation between parents and children.

Ignorance is not stupidity, but it might as well be. And I do not like feeling stupid.

That's one of the fun parts of becoming an actor: You can become whoever you want to be.

Never think of any right effort as being fruitless. All right effort bears fruit, whether we see the results or not.

When I was a young man, I was a baritone, very far from possessing the whole range of the tenor then.

Free enterprise, individual opportunity, limited government. They made America great; only they can keep America strong.