The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.

I met The Beatles and Stones at the same time, because Michael Cooper was doing several of their album covers.

When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor.

I'm not interested in attacking, I'm interested in astonishing.

Someone wrote a piece about Henry Green in The Partisan Review that was so intriguing that I got one of his novels, Loving, I believe, which was the first that came to attention in the United States.

There is no power on earth that can loosen a man's grip on his own throat

In that sense, film is superior, but the difficulty is your lack of control as a writer.

You can't do the end of the world in a conventionally dramatic way or Boy Meets Girl way.

When I finally made it to the set, I spent a lot of time doing damage control on The Magic Christian.

After Strangelove I also started work on an adaptation of The Collector.

Peter Beard is one of those people I've known a long time. We have an affinity. We share certain values.

Make Learning Magical

The tyranny of an object, he thought. It doesn't know I exist.

So let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless unreasoning unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Bob Altman had this relaxed but serious attitude. Everybody loved him. I wanted him to adopt me.

Indeed science alone may perhaps be sterile when pursued without an understanding of the world in which scientific knowledge is created and in which the fruits of science are used.

Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.

My bike is my gym, my wheelchair, and my church all in one.

I went to England because somebody told me to, and I loved it. And, "blessed" is a silly word to use for some people, but that's how I feel. I feel blessed.

People usually don't allow you to cut off their tongue.

I have always admired the way women put outfits together.