It's a young country and a German only feels comfortable being with the masses. They have very little talent at creating an inner life, privacy. And I think there must be something wrong.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.

Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.

When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

That was an important rule of any game: always make it easy for people to give you money.

Why do you even have jewelry?" she asked. "You don't wear any." "It seems I acquired it for you.

Everything they say about Elvis today is true. He was just one great guy. He wasn't jealous of anyone. I would say Elvis was really someone special when you add it all up.

Those faces you see every day on the streets were not created entirely without hope: be kind to them: like you they have not escaped.

The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life.

Good storytelling is harder than it sounds, but the easy part is that everyone has the ability to do it. ...Tap into it.

Better use medicines at the outset than at the last moment.

Musical people always want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is longing to be perfectly deaf.

Bob Dylan is one of the very few people in the history of popular music who you can unquestionably apply that word [genius] to.

It has always been, and will always be true; those who do the most good suffer more than most do.