To write the lives of the great in separating them from their works necessarily ends by above all stressing their pettiness, because it is in their work that they have put the best of themselves.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.

Pain and suffering are a kind of currency passed from hand to hand until they reach someone who receives them but does not pass them on.

There are only two things that pierce the human heart. One is beauty. The other is affliction.

If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money.

A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.

There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice.

The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running.

Equality is the public recognition, effectively expressed in institutions and manners, of the principle that an equal degree of attention is due to the needs of all human beings.

More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic.

We are who we are, but we know who we are through our response to the changing world.

I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.

Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a man deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost.

There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.

I've written about 15 screenplays and they all sold - they were all sold on pitches.

The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one.

Logic and fact keep interfering with the easy flow of conversation.

My most famous drama in England is quite controversial. It's something called Men Only, and it's rather a shocking exploration of male sexuality.

I am where a great many voters are, which is that I am listening and watching and coming to a decision.

All things that are, are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.