What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide."That is because I know what life is, " said Martin.

Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.

Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.

If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?

She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.

Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.

had no need of a guide to learn ignorance

Wisdom must yield to superstition's rules, Who arms with bigot zeal the hand of fools.

Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.

If they're from the village, you take them to the inn. If they're from the city, you treat them with respect when they are beautiful and throw them on the highway when they are dead.

But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad, " replied Martin.

I would much rather have my grotesque products of the imagination compared to your delusional sanity.

But until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday, " that person cannot say, "I choose otherwise.

I often traveled to Nicaragua to speak against repressive policies by the Sandinista government.

People don't live or die, people just float.

I caught hold of the great bull market in soybeans in 1977. I had no idea what I was doing, incidentally.

I usually start writing stories from tone and not from content - kind of like people who create music and invent the lyrics later on.

Everyone is a poet at 16, but how many are poets at 50? Generally, people seem to get more conservative as they age, but in my case, I seem to have gotten more radical.

Writing orchestra music, you need for the emotional content to come from everyone doing everything together, adding up as it goes, a crowd mentality.

I watched tons of archive footage of princess Margaret and listened to the music she loved; that was really immersive and brilliant.

mistakes are a part of life, and Papa works her purpose in them too.