It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

[A]ll churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Religion is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it as I detest everything that is cruel.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Evil is appealing, evil is attractive, evil is stylish. However, evil is still evil and it deserves to be treated just like that.

The eyes are the window of the soul.

Let's be wise as the silence, strong as the wind, useful as the light; let's make of our lips a censer of the virtues.

I can do a book in three months if I spend all day, seven days a week at it and, in fact, I work better that way.

Peace is the natural state of man, war the temporary repeal of reason and virtue.

I've always thought that a woman owes it to herself to treat the subject of her age with ambiguity.

I had a doctorate in biological anthropology. I got a post-doc at CWRU dental school in 1983 teaching gross anatomy.

But actually I make films that I think are extremely sophisticated and cinematic.

I'm the kind of person who doesn't wait for opportunities to fall from the sky.