Of all afflictions, the worst is self contempt.

Years teach us more than books.

The little dissatisfaction which every artist feels at the completion of a work forms the germ of a new work.

To acquire money requires valor, to keep money requires prudence, and to spend money well is an art.

If you sound great in the practice room, you're practicing the wrong thing. Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Only he is free who cultivates his own thoughts and strives without fear to do justice to them.

In Nature there is no dirt, everything is in the right condition; the swamp and the worm, as well as the grass and the bird,-all is there for itself.

Discontent is the source of all trouble,but also of all progress, in individuals and nations.

To harbor hatred and animosity in the soul makes one irritable, gloomy, and prematurely old.

The silver-leaved birch retains in its old age a soft bark; there are some such men.

Gratitude is a soil on which joy thrives.

Everybody thinks theyll never get married at your age. You think you can go on all your life being single, but you suddenly find out that you cant.

I liked teaching Henry James. When you look down at a Henry James novel from a helicopter height, you find an intricate spider web that all clings together.

I think the best thing about being James Brown is looking at my little son. Hopefully I can make my son a role model to a lot of people.

The ideas can come from anywhere; the energy just comes from loving what I do.

God's word is : He who strives never perishes.

I wasn't really interested in doing television. I don't have that much ambition. My agent, Eileen Feldman, has all the ambition for me.

Our culture says Status is more important than Wealth, but we teach the opposite.

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.

I love going into a dive where they have no idea who I am or haven't heard my music and try to win them over.

Even after the mothering dropped because my son grew up, the writing - the muse - was always the third wheel, the lowest on the priority list.