We can't have a decent government unless those in power exercise self restraint.

The true Mason takes full responsibility for the condition of his character and ever strives for its perfection.

The true Mason always carries his working tools everywhere.

Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.

Too many people don't care what happens so long as it doesn't happen to them.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.

The precepts of the Gospel were universally the obligations of Masonry.

Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.

The world is not going to be saved by legislation.

The true Mason never hesitates to use the working tools to correct personal flaws.

In my opinion, actual heroism, like actual love, is a messy, painful, vulnerable business—and I wanted to try to reflect that.

If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it's a street photograph

I have three dogs and a cockatoo.

Being bipolar and an addict and an alcoholic I have to keep myself very busy. I don't sleep. I am lucky if I get three hours of sleep a night, and so I get up, and my head is full of slamming doors.

Obviously, nu-que-lar power is, uh, a renewable source of energy, and the less demand there is for non-renewable sources of energy, like fossil fuels, the better it off it is for the American people.

If you want to touch the hearts of people you can't do that with newspapers or with radio, you have to do it with TV.

I hate you, Richard Wagner . . . but I hate you on my knees.

We are under [government's] control, and if people don't realize that, they haven't looked around. And if they're not paranoid, they haven't thought about it.

The notion that Cuba is the only country in the world where you can live without working must be erased forever.

Pretty much anything you care to imagine can happen in a fantasy, which in turn means you can really crank up the intensity of the tale you're telling.