I was a very devout boy and one day I heard the music of an Egyptian Koran singer in the mosque. The melancholy of this music touched me so deeply that it brought me to tears.

The future belongs to us. I think that art is a force that can change the world.

Nothing is allowed in public, while everything is permitted behind closed doors.

I believe in freedom, I'm for a world without borders. But that's an ideal. On a practical level, I'm for a secular state where religion only plays a minor role.

The most important element of democracy, I believe, is the protection of minorities.

My family thought if I spent time in the military, I'd become more reasonable, a bit calmer. But I've always been extreme in what I do - both as a believer and a nonbeliever.

Fundamentalists can't take a joke. Ever. They want us to blindly obey, parrot everything they do, and believe in their dogmas.

I'm a musician; I have to perform. I can't give up. I have to be even more courageous. We know that we have a lot of enemies. Not only in Iran. But that doesn't matter.

I lived in the world of poetry and ideas. I thought life was all about art and philosophy. In the military, I suddenly found out about the real world.

Why then should witless man so much misweeneThat nothing is but that which he hath seene?

There are no bees on the moon

Do you ever wonder why music brings a soul to surface? What makes beauty work as well as pain?

If we try and fail, we have temporary disappointments. But if we do not try at all, we have permanent regrets.

I am not going to let anyone into America who is not vetted, who we do not have confidence in. But I am not going to slam the door on women and children.

Youth instinctively understand the present environment - the electric drama. It lives mythically and in depth.

L.A. is not a town that supports a lot of theater. Most of the shows don't get through a week or two and then, the audience kind of disappears.

War destroys, kills, impoverishes. Lord, give us your peace!

The first clergyman was the first rascal who met the first fool.

Honesty and integrity are by far the most important assets of an entrepreneur.