Most Americans would say that they disapproved of violence. But what they really mean is that they believe it should be the monopoly of the state.

Juvenile delinquency serves many purposes, including that of providing sadistic adults with fantasies suited to their special tastes.

What we must decide is how we are valuable rather than how valuable we are.

The teenager seems to have replaced the Communist as the appropriate target for public controversy and foreboding.

Not only do most people accept violence if it is perpetuated by legitimate authority, they also regard violence against certain kinds of people as inherently legitimate, no matter who commits it.

Human life is a continuous thread which each of us spins to his own pattern, rich and complex in meaning. There are no natural knots in it. Yet knots form, nearly always in adolescence.

It takes a kind of shabby arrogance to survive in our time, and a fairly romantic nature to want to.

Those who love the young best stay young longer.

No American is prepared to attend his own funeral without the services of highly skilled cosmeticians. Part of the American dream, after all, is to live long and die young.

Canadians are more polite when they are being rude than Americans are when they are being friendly.

All weakness tends to corrupt, and impotence corrupts absolutely.

You don't think I'm going to deflower you under your father's roof, do you?

There is grace for every soul.

... wanting nothing more than for it to unravel, unbind.

Victory is a thing of the will.

I could stay making nice safe BBC movies for the rest of my life, so I decided to risk it. It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

People have said that I said I hate television. I never did say that. What I said was that I hated a lot of stuff that was on television. It's nothing about the medium itself.

There are thousands willing to do great things for one willing to do a small thing.

The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.

It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.

I always thought that Elvis could have been a great actor, and that he was put in a lot of unimportant movies when he could have done a lot of great ones.