My mother always told me I had to do 100 times better than a man. I had to work hard at maths, and learn four languages.

Life is too short to be lived badly.

The real war is not between the West and the East. The real war is between intelligent and stupid people.

All big changes of the world come from words.

Drawing is the first language of the human being before writing. It's a transcription of how the human being sees reality, not reality itself.

When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyzes us. Besides, fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators' repression.

Culture and education are the lethal weapons against all kinds of fundamentalism.

The world is not about Batman and Robin fighting the Joker; things are more complicated than that. And nothing is scarier than the people who try to find easy answers to complicated questions.

The best thing I ever did in my life was to ask, 'Do I like everybody?' And the answer was, 'No.' So why should everybody like me? If people are against me, so what? I'm against them too.

Nothing's worse than saying goodbye. It's a little like dying.

Evil is international and the fanatic is international and universal. There is no difference between a Muslim fanatic, a Christian fanatic, even a secular fanatic.

Life is the totality of time

Old age is having the name of a chiropractor in your wallet. It's cutting out coupons for the zeal of discounted small items and the practice of fine motor skills.

Perhaps middle age is or should be a period of shedding shells the shell of ambition the shell of material accumulations and possessions the shell of the ego.

I'm not very cool. I have a really hard time meeting people and stuff.

WHEN YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT, YOU CAN AFFORD TO KEEP YOUR TEMPER; AND WHEN YOU ARE IN THE WRONG, YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE IT.

Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.

And we didn't have cell phones. If you made plans to meet someone in a snow storm, and they didn't show up, you just had to assume they were devoured by wolves and go on with your life.

There are some composers - at the head of whom stands Beethoven - who not only do not know when to stop but appear to stop many times before they actually do.

There can be no perfect democracy curtailed by color, race, or poverty. But with all we accomplish all, even peace.