No, seriously, I really don't have much ill-will toward anyone these days; I just ignore the people that I dislike

I think this society suffers so much from too much freedom, too many rights that allow people to be irresponsible.

I never understood alienation. Alienation from what? You have to want to be part of something in order to feel alienated from it.

I think when I was two years old in the sandbox. I think I formulated my basic philosophy there, and I haven't really had to alter it very much ever since

I've been giving interviews for the last 25 or 30 years, more often than not answering the same questions over and over again, ad nauseum

People who consider themselves political, who follow political developments most rigorously, are often those who view the political process with the greatest lack of perspective.

Embrace nature's brutal perfection.

I think I feel automatically at home in Italy

I have never made any secret of any of my thoughts or areas of interest. I've always been honest, open, and upfront

I've always done everything at my disposal to avoid labeling what I do, or to avoid being labeled myself

Similarly, only people as misanthropic as myself can be counted on not to have to lie to others, since we have the unique luxury of not caring what sort of opinions others formulate about us.

even though the dead are beyond our touch, they remain fully dimensional, fully capable of affecting our decisions and quandaries.

I favor access to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

To 'turn around' is to end up facing the same way. Maybe that is the problem, all the turning organizations around.

No one should be afraid to be themselves.

I don't really belong to that world and I don't think anyone's going to miss me. I'm much happier just to write myself out of the script entirely.

The most important advance that the West has yet made is to develop a secularist moral tradition

If you knew that hope and despair were paths to the same destination, which would you choose?

Touch is the first language we speak.

It's very clearly stated in the film: You make your own choices, and what you're always fighting is ego.

We have already provided a strong humanitarian response to the problems in the Middle East and that response will be stronger within coming days.