The rationalist mind has always had its doubts about Venice. The watery city receives a dry inspection, as though it were a myth for the credulous- poets and honeymooners.

We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story.

Modern neurosis began with the discoveries of Copernicus. Science made men feel small by showing him that the earth was not the center of the universe.

Every age has a keyhole to which its eye is pasted.

Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon.

Every word she writes is a lie, including "and" and "the."

Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.

If someone tells you he is going to make a 'realistic decision', you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad.

For self-realization, a rebel demands a strong authority, a worthy opponent, God to his Lucifer.

We are the hero of our own story.

Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.

Only my characters truly know what's happening - I just hold the pen

And so I will take back up my poor life, so plain and so tranquil, where phrases are adventures and the only flowers I gather are metaphors.

I wrote '('Til) I Kissed You' about a girl I met in Australia. Her name was Lilian, and she was very, very inspirational. I was married, but... I wrote the song about her on the way back home.

You can be intuitive when you've got a more expansive role. You can get into the poetry of telling the story rather than just pushing buttons.

Winter makes a bridge between one year and another and, in this case, one century and the next.

If you do something for so long, it's really great in your life, right?

I'm a father of four so whenever I'm not working my kids have their different sports, or plays, or school performances, so I don't do a whole lot of other stuff besides being a dad.

We decided to start our own group because we were bored with everything we heard... Everything was 10th-generation Led Zeppelin... Overproduced, or just junk. We missed music like it used to be.

The hard part about getting much attention is that people start dissecting what you do.

The society Shakespeare knew was heading for tremendous change, and he seems to have recognized that and written about it in a coded way. I understand those codes, I think