It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap.

Life's too short to deal with other people's insecurities.

No expectations. Ask nothing, expect nothing and accept everything, and life is very well.

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

I don't believe in nepotism. I don't much like the idea of parents who interfere.

Relish everything that's inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

The whole point of courage, to overcome your fear. That's the interesting thing, when courage bleeds through the fear.

I always liked to take the plunge, you know, I'd jump in at the deep end and hope that I'd find land somehow, or hope I'd float or survive. That's more or less the way I've gone through my life.

You're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?

Who better to confess to than a dying woman?

As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.

I see with greater and greater clearness that consistent Christianity is the easiest Christianity to defend

Politicians are masters of sounding like they agree with you.

In two cases I did not fulfill my role as defense minister, in that I did not stop things that I was sure should have been stopped.

Literature is one of the few areas left where black and white feel some identity of purpose; we all struggle under censorship.

Police business is a hell of a problem. It's a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there's nothing in it to attract the highest type of men.

What probably distorts everything in life is that one is convinced that one is speaking the truth because one says what one thinks.

Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.

May I propose a Herzog dictum? Those who read own the world, and those who watch television lose it.