[The Library of Congress] is a multimedia encyclopedia. These are the tentacles of a nation.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes 'sight-seeing.'

Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.

The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life.

Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.

I write to discover what I think.

Knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up. It increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion.

Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.

We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in their place.

If you find God, you shall be free forever.

Storytellers have as profound a purpose as any who are charged to guide and transform human lives. I knew it as an ancient discipline and vocation to which everyone is called.

Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.

You know, my first three or four drafts, you can see, are on legal pads in long hand. And then I go to a typewriter, and I know everybody's switching to a computer. And I'm sort of laughed at.

When I owned the theater, I had the Glen Miller Orchestra. I had 20 girls singing and dancing. I had a cast of characters. It was a big group production, as well as ushers, ticket takers.

You learn the most from life's hardest knocks.

Wise anger is like fire from a flint: there is great ado to get it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately.

Words have ruined more souls than any devil's agency.

That's what my life is, writing songs.

I'm motivated. The spirit hits me and I just keep going and don't stop. The more I play, the more I can invent, the more ideas come to me.