I'm the smartest at 8 A.M. I wake up at 6, drink three cups of Awake Tazo Tea and read five newspapers. I have to think up something every day, Monday to Friday.

It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else.

Don’t sleep with people who don’t read.

My idea of an interesting person is someone who is quite proud of their seemingly abnormal life and turns their disadvantage into a career.

True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks.

Without obsession, life is nothing.

[My catholic education] sticked with me. It caused the rage I had to make 'Pink Flamingos.'

Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it's the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it.

Do we secretly idolize our imagined opposites, yearning to become the role models for others we know we could never be for ourselves?

I like hard movies; I like ones that are basically the opposite of a date movie.

The "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" hitchhiker really made people never want to hitchhike again - the hitcher, the show. Hitchhiking is always vaguely sexual.

Family dinner. Seven-thirty sharp. Tie optional. Straight-jacker required.

If a man talks bad about all women, it usually means he was burned by one woman.

I always say a tremendous amount of healing is in your own hands.

It's good to be in love.

Whatever I hear in my head is what I play.

The suspicion and antagonism of academics, clerics and intellectuals towards the market... go hand in hand with their disdain for the preference and habits of ordinary people.

When you feel that you can't fight it, you just go for it. When it comes to the arts, passion should always trump common sense.

There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.

The only durable community is the one that embraces the whole planet, wild and tame . . .

The item of clothing that makes us feel powerful is the one that makes us feel confident and self-assured, that magically makes us look our best in all kinds of circumstances.