I want to be an art-hero - I want to change the form of the novel.

I like to look at how people work together when they are put into stressful situations, when life stops being cozy.

Art can make a difference because it pulls people up short. It says, don't accept things for their face value; you don't have to go along with any of this; you can think for yourself.

I don't know how to answer. I know what I think, but words in the head are like voices underwater. They are distorted.

I felt like a seed in a pomegranate. Some say that the pomegranate was the real apple of Eve, fruit of the womb, I would eat my way into perdition to taste you.

Happiness is a specific. Misery is a generalization. People usually know exactly why they are happy. They very rarely know why they are miserable.

Quest is at the heart of what I do-the holy grail, and the terror that you'll never find it, seemed a perfect metaphor for life.

I find pieces of myself everywhere, and I cut myself handling them.

Do you fall in love often?" Yes often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, with friends, with complete strangers, with nothing at all.

I would eat my way into perdition to taste you.

Life cannot be calculated. That's the big mistake our civilization made. We never accepted that randomness is not a mistake in the equation -- it is part of the equation.

A leader cannot fall prey to the whims of the voices that shout the loudest, but must stand as a voice of reason in defense of the silent.

Nice. I like a little desperation ina guy. It builds character.

Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.

Greatness follows those who lead the way.

To be told you've won a MacArthur fellowship is very flattering and gratifying personally.

Lenny Bruce is a very moral man trying to improve the world and trying to make audiences think

Even if I don't have a job, I work on plays and scenes.

I grew up in a household of girls, so I would just pick up naturally what everyone else was doing.

The one pleasure that never palls is the pleasure of not going to church.

I think as a scout you have to pick. It is harder. You have to talk and explain that this is not just about standing one-dimensionally in front of a camera.