The truth is that James, like many other great writers and artists, had chosen his own loyalties and nationality. His true country, his home, was that of the imagination.

...these sleepless nights, when oddly enough my concentration was high, fueled perhaps by the effort to ignore the all-engrossing threat of bombs and rockets.

And even with the book closed, the voices do not stop--there are echoes and reverberations that seem to leap off the pages and mischievously leave the novel tingling in our ears.

My toe as a lethal weapon!

I went on and on, and as I continued, I became more righteous in my indignation. It was the sort of anger one gets high on, the kind one takes home to show off to family and friends.

She looked not so much composed as drawn inward. She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and vulnerable at the same time.

The Islamic Revolution, as it turned out, did more damage to Islam by using it as an instrument of oppression than any alien ever could have done.

[V]alue your dreams but . . . be wary of them also, . . . look for integrity in unusual places.

If I cannot be useful to my country, I'll try to be useful to my leader and to all the people around me.

He has so many creations, and yet He never forgets me, but I only have One Creator, and I’ve forgotten him countless times.

..Science is changing. God's Word does not change!

The rule of reason is the true sovereign in the American system.

A genuine man goes to the roots. To be a radical is no more than that: to go to the roots.

I have a tendency to sabotage relationships; I have a tendency to sabotage everything. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of being afraid. Useless, good-for-nothing thoughts.

If you want to be famous, you have to do whatever youre doing worse than anyone else in the whole world.

So go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.

Never lose the child-like wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us. Help others.

All of my films deal with the same thing: striving, socially and culturally, to stay alive.