Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies.

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?

I guess you were not my friend then, that's okay. I can see my true self, I can see yours, now. I guess that you did not look hard enough at mine. Or you would never have let me go.

The great value of lofty goals is the bigness they instill in you as you step-up to achieve them.

I like low-maintenance girls, but at the same time, classy. She needs to take care of herself. But also be a girl who isn't afraid to get sweaty and play basketball, so it's cool if she's a tomboy.

It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.

[Uniting workers should not] lead to a war upon property, or the owners of property.

Never by hatred is hatred appeased, but it is appeased by kindness. This is an eternal truth.

The balance of probabilities, therefore, comes out strongly against the existence of a god.

Carve a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.

This is ideological colonization. They colonize people with ideas that try to change mentalities or structures, but this is not new. This was done by the dictatorships of the last century.