I never went to university. I'm self-educated. I didn't go because I was too impatient, too arrogant.

Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.

In order really to write one has to sink deep into the self and become lost there.

All my life I have lied. I lied to escape, I lied to be loved, I lied for placement and power; I lied to lie. It was a way of living; lies are life's almost-anagram.

The past beats inside me like a second heart.

If I was asked to say what was the greatest invention of human beings, I would say the sentence.

Everything we do is tinged with the knowledge that this may be the last time that we will do this, and that makes what we're doing incredibly sweet.

We carry the dead with us only until we die too, and then it is we who are borne along for a little while, and then our bearers in their turn drop, and so on into the unimaginable generations.

To take possession of a city of which you are not a native you must first fall in love there.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.

A man is not much if he can't depend on himself, and nothing if others can't depend on him.

The enemy doesn't warn its target. Emergencies do not make appointments, and the greatest battles of life are often surprises.

I've decided to take this unrequited love, and quietly put it away in a corner of my heart as a bittersweet page of my youth.

In olden times sacrifices were made at the altar a custom which is still continued.

Sometimes, Chelsea, I wonder, how you get by from day to day. It's a good thing you're so voluptuous.

If you can't find what's unique, people aren't going to listen.

The only thing the record companies put out now is 'Best of,'

Talent isn't as important as the work and dedication necessary to become competent.

I've been doing stand-up 29 years; there is no other career when you're finding your stride 30 years into it.

Most cinema is not about images but text. Why on earth have we based cinema on text? Why can't we break that umbilical cord? Why do we have to pollute cinema?

When I was a kid, I loved horror films. I used to stay up on Saturday night to watch.