My goal in life is to be content. By that I don't mean "fine" or "basically satisfied." I don't mean settling. I mean, for last of better terms, feeling like I'm in the right life.

Life is mostly an exercise in being something other than what we used to be while remaining fundamentally — and sometimes maddeningly — who we are.

In the history of the world, a whole story has never been told.

How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.

I want God to be first in my life, so I’m putting Him first in my life today.

My mother said to me "If you become a soldier you'll be a general if you become a monk you'll end up as the pope." Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.

I don't really shout that much.

It wasn't too difficult to see that [Ian] Paisley would never do anything positive.

There is no failure in God's will, and no success outside of God's will.

We are a nation of politicians, concerned about the outmost defenses only of freedom. It is our children's children who may perchance be really free.

There's some great reality TV, and I'm not bagging on it completely.

In Harlan, Kentucky, we told stories the way some people play music. ... In the mountains, storytelling is truly an art form, and as much recreation as communication.