I'm 100 percent Jewish by blood, but by education I'm nothing. By affiliation I'm nothing.

Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family.

What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.

Twentieth-century Russian literature has produced nothing special except perhaps one novel and two stories by Andrei Platonov, who ended his days sweeping streets.

How delightful to find a friend in everyone.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

For darkness restores what light cannot repair.

I sit in the dark. And it would be hard to figure out which is worse; the dark inside, or the darkness out.

Geography blended with time equals destiny.

Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse

Poetry is what is gained in translation.

All of our thoughts – ideas – are traceable to a sensation, an encounter with the world that leaves an impression upon the mind.

So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you!

I think beauty comes from actually knowing who you are. That's real beauty to me.

When I watch films or tv that I've done, I get very restless and tend to not sit still.

Moderation in people who are contented comes from that calm that good fortune lends to their spirit.

True and false fears let us refrain, Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Years and years unto years, till we attain To write threescore ; this is the second of our reign.

To be a gentleman is to be oneself, all of a seam, on camera and off.

The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading.

One gets wrapped up in reacting to ones own reputation, which can be a kind of trap.

Enjoy the joy of being enjoyed by God.