I was in school for literature, and read so many 19th century and early 20th century novels that it was hard to break out of that and read an average Jeanette Winterson book or something.

An old bandit adage: A bell is a cup until it is struck.

It is better to live presently. By living thus, perhaps we can learn to understand the nature of this fragile coexistence we share with the world around us.

As she walked, she breathed a quick benediction to the patron saint of sleuthing. "Nancy Drew," she whispered, "be with me now.

You can't really come into a concept record objectively, because you immediately associate it with Yes, stuff from the 1970s that punk rock kicked against, the pretentiousness.

When you get respect from the people who are buying your music and coming to your shows, there's an expectation that you have to live up to your own standards.

I'd rather have a strong career, playing and selling records to a loyal audience, then having one record that exploded. That would be devastating.

And I am a writer, writer of fictions I am the heart that you call home And I've written pages upon pages Trying to rid you from my bones.

One thing about hanging out with a baby is that you can remember a little bit better what it was like to be a kid, and all the mystery that came along with it.

Music has been already devalued by the consumer. There's an expectation that it should be free so the race to the bottom has already been won.

There's some things there that you just have to draw the line. Some people are just not going to like it. We would hope that everybody would like it.

Never stop saying, “I love you”!

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

As sheer casual reading matter, I still find the English dictionary the most interesting book in our language.

If I can't negotiate something that gets more than four Republicans, I'm not a very good representative of my party.

I carry around such a load of non-specific guilt that every time the metal detector beeps, I always have a wild fear that this trip I absent-mindedly packed a Luger.

Life is too short to leave your walls bare or colorless. Unless you like bare and colorless then it is fine.

If you can't worship at the back, you can't worship at the front

It doesn't matter if you're play-pretending crying or play-pretending laughing, you're still play-pretending.

I sincerely pray that all the members of the human family may, in the time prescribed by the Father of us all, find themselves securely established in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and happiness.