If the arts are held up solely as a means of social insight, fantasy is denied the chance to be commonplace and reality the chance to be exotic.

I can't think of anyone I admire who isn't fuelled by self-doubt. It's an essential ingredient. It's the grit in the oyster.

I am interested in the gap between what people say and what they think - the undiscovered world of people's lives. Lives of quiet desperation.

I think the collision between the First and Third world is going to become more and more conspicuous. It's the big cliff that we've all got to climb.

I've always argued, unsuccessfully, that there's no point in giving money to the arts unless you educate people in them.

What we hold in our heads - our memory, our feelings, our thoughts, our sense of our own history - is the sum of our humanity.

Resolution, like responsibility, is a product of ownership, and kids can't resolve a conflict until they figure out how they contributed to it.

I envy the happiness of others... I envy the sense of belonging... I seem always to be remaking myself.

You can't be minimalist as a director until you have acquired the experience and confidence to say no.

Naming a baby is an act of poetry, for many people the only creative moment of their lives.

If you want to make a difference, then get good at doing something and not just talking about something

There is no way to explain enlightenment. It is just a word to indicate something beyond, something very, very far beyond the normal human condition.

On the basis of my historical experience, I fully believe that mathematics of the 25th century will be as different from that of today as the latter is from that of the 16th century.

It's been an objective of mine since I started writing songs to include both intellect and energy.

Going to college was never an option. I was passionate about music, but how much talent I actually had was another matter.

I figure as an artist the best thing you can do is follow your heart - and if your heart is marketable, then you win.

Balanced budget requirements seem more likely to produce accounting ingenuity than genuinely balanced budgets.

If somebody writes a book and doesn't care for the survival of that book, he's an imbecile.

You don't want to think something might be racist, but it might be, because your gut is telling you it is

The future and where we're going can be very terrifying, in some ways, but it's also really inspirational.