We need not destroy the past. It is gone.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

Everything you do is music, and everywhere is the best seat.

The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.

The world is no longer a romantic place; some of its people still are however, and therein lies the promise. Don't let the world win.

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

Good music can act as a guide to good living.

Look at everything. Don't close your eyes to the world around you. Look and become curious and interested in what there is to see.

Nature thrives on patience man on impatience.

A woman who becomes famous through her work reduces her erotic value. A woman is permitted to chat or babble, but speaking in public with authority is still the greatest transgression.

I was not born to amuse the Tsars.

I was deeply distressed that the cartoons were seen by many Muslims as an attempt by Denmark to mark and insult or behave disrespectfully towards Islam or the Prophet Mohammed.

I never applied to any acting schools. I don't know if that's just bad reporting, or - sometimes I just make stuff up.

What does reason know? Reason only knows what it has succeeded in learning.

There is so much fragility in kissing, in other people: It is all glass.

Why was love so easy for some people and so hard for others?

I love the underdog stories. I love people who refuse to give up.

When I find a ladybug I ask the butler to take it outside instead of killing it.