I used to believe that anything was better than nothing. Now I know that sometimes nothing is better.

Nobody really needs a mink coat... Except the mink.

I look forward to growing old and wise and audacious.

Acting is not about dressing up. Acting is about stripping bare. The whole essence of learning lines is to forget them so you can make them sound like you thought of them that instant.

It's appalling that there have to be movements organized to give human beings the right to be human beings in the eyes of other human beings.

I can't actually see myself putting make-up on my face at the age of sixty, but I can see myself going on a camel train to Samarkand.

My money goes to my agent, then to my accountant and from him to the tax man.

I have never believed you make your case stronger by bad-mouthing your opposition.

Men can be a great deal of work for very little reward.

If we go back to the heyday of that era I think we will see replicated again the extraordinary human damage that we as a nation have suffered from.

The good writer and the good actor are always searching for what is essential. It is a never-ending task because what is essential is always elusive and, therefore, fascinating.

Moving is not about forgetting. It's about moving forward and never looking back.

... the Iroquois take dreams very seriously. They see them as the secret wishes of the soul--the heart's desire, so to speak. Not all dreams, maybe, but the important ones. [p.254]

Everything wrong I've ever done has always seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

To ensure assimilation we want to ensure that it works. Assimilation, an important word. Integration and upward mobility.

My grief and my smile begin in your face, my son.

The Indian gods are imposing, the Greek gods are not. Indeed they are not brave, not self-controlled, they have no manners, they are not gentlemen and ladies.

Of course, living is another way of killing oneself: its drawback is that it takes so horribly long.

One cannot dictate an aphorism to a typist. It would take too long.

Nothing can be more puritanical in application than the virtues.

You are the human clay," Vosch whispers fiercely in my ear. "And I am Michelangelo. I am the master builder, and you will be my masterpiece.