The most agonising thing is to drop doubt into a man about his being a reality, three-dimensional - and not some other kind of reality.

But you can't plead with autumn. No. The midnight wind stalked through the woods, hooted to frighten you, swept everything away for the approaching winter, whirled the leaves. ("The North")

The only means of ridding man of crime is ridding him of freedom.

You are afraid of it because it is stronger than you you hate it because you are afraid of it you love it because you cannot subdue it to your will. Only the unsubduable can be loved.

A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading.

Happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness. There was no third alternative.

knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith

If human foolishness had been as carefully nurtured and cultivated as intelligence has been for centuries, perhaps it would have turned into something extremely precious.

You can only love something that refuses to be mastered.

Children are the only bold philosophers. And bold philosophers are invariably children.

Let my notes, like the most sensitive seismograph, record the curve of even the most insignificant vibrations of my brain: for it is precisely such vibrations that are sometimes the forewarning of...

Climate Change is a bit like our advanced societies. Too late to "fix." The only choice left is that we adapt to what we've created.

You need to decide what works for you. But ultimately, hold out for adoration and respect

That is one of the reasons one enjoys acting. Now and again, you get scenes where you work with somebody really good and you have a good time trying to make it really work and really work well.

Life is one heck of an invention. It is better than the iPhone 4S and Coke Zero combined.

Good karma leads to rebirth also. The desire for higher states of mind is a desire. When you are fixated on higher states of mind, you don't become enlightened.

While I have not ruled out the possibility of doing music, what I don't want to do is go onstage and perform old songs. I do, all the time, but I don't think it is artistically brave.

I do think laughter is the most important thing, and being able to see the funny side of nearly anything is a crucial, crucial thing.

Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher.

A lot of solo directors have a really strong creative producer with them. Jay and I have less of a need for that because we have each other.