The birds suffer their suffering each in a lifetime, forgetting it as they go.

Sometimes when reading Goethe I have the paralyzing suspicion that he is trying to be funny.

The poet is at the edge of our consciousness of the world, finding beyond the suspected nothingness which we imagine limits our perception another acre or so of being worth our venturing upon.

Art is always the replacement of indifference by attention.

Imagination is like the drunk man who lost his watch and must get drunk again to find it.

We will always return to the private and inviolable act of reading as our culture's way of developing an individual.

I’ve carved the puppet, and I manipulate the strings, but while it’s on stage, the show belongs to the puppet.

In curved Einsteinian space we are at all times, technically, looking at the back of our own head.

A work of art is a form that articulates forces, making them intelligible.

Unless the work of art has wholly exhausted its makers attention, it fails. This is why works of great significance are demanding and why they are infinitely rewarding.

I never intended to be a teacher. I just like going to school and learning things.

There is no wisdom where there is no common sense: it cannot under those conditions find any expression.

A rich man's joke is always funny.

I can hit it farther on the moon. But actually, my swing is better here on Earth.

I didn't make a film because I wanted a starring role. I made a film because I wanted to tell a story and I wanted to prove that I could direct.

I have no will power when it comes to sweets. I have a sweet tooth.

These are not exhortations from overwrought extremists, but carefully phrased warnings from some of the world's finest scientists.

Youth must go ahead and prosper. These young painters are all very talented people, but they all paint frescoes.

Photography is a tool to negotiate our idea of reality. Thus it is the responsibility of photographers to not contribute with anaesthetic images but rather to provide images that shake consciousness.

Small beginnings are the launching pad to great endings.

I was fascinated by The Lord of the Rings from about the age of eight and that lasted well into my teens.