When literature becomes deliberately indifferent to the opposition of good and evil it betrays its function and forfeits all claim to excellence.

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.

Nothing matters but the facts. Without them, the science of criminal investigation is nothing more than a guessing game.

All the travelin I ever done is going around the coffeepot looking for the handle.

If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?

I like Simon Cowell - look at how many great artists have come out of the U.K. because of him.

But no matter how much planning you do, one tiny miscalculation, one moment of distraction, can end it all in an instant.

Get good live and get a following because that's what people notice.

I think people love shows that are relationship-oriented. I think they love family shows.

At the beginning of each lecture I say, 'Here's a set of events unexplainable by common sense, and I promise you'll be able to solve this mystery at the end of class.'

You never knew this, but I was in love. Okay, infatuated, but it felt like love at the time.

I usually have poor to absent relations with editors because they have a habit of desiring changes and I resist changes.