I wanted when we began this to have a conversation, the kind that you're able to have, and the only way I knew how to do it was not to have a pre-interview.

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

The difference - the fundamental difference between theater acting and film acting is that film acting is disjunctive.

I think that anybody's craft is fascinating. A taxi driver talking about taxi driving is going to be very, very interesting.

When you're talking about the thing that is most important to someone, they're liable to feel something strong.

Comedians don't laugh. They're too busy analyzing why it's funny or not.

I must confess that when I'm alone in my study, here in New York, writing; that's when I'm happy.

There's only one man I've called a coward, and that's Brian Doyle-Murray.

A good day's writing, when I turn off my computer after I know that I've written okay, or as well as I can write, that's a day well spent.

Our language, one of our most precious natural resources, deserves at least as much protection as our woodlands, streams and whooping cranes.

The definition of genius, really, should be that that person can do what the rest of us have to learn how to do.

The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.

But your solitude will be a support and a home for you, even in the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances, and from it you will find all your paths.

The ancient Jewish people gave the world the vision of eternal peace, of universal disarmament, of abolishing the teaching and learning of war.

Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning; and these three last have never converted any.

A function to each organ, and each organ to its own function, is the law of all organization.

What's interesting about subscribing to a life of giving is that you become addicted.

Being a first-rounder is a dream. You want to be mentioned as a first-rounder, the best of the best.

We stone our prophets, then build monuments to them after they're gone.

Be your own teacher. Let life write your textbook.

We must reconcile ourselves to a season of failures and fragments.