When you become a parent, you look at your parents differently. You look at being a child differently. It's an awakening, a revelation that you have.

I know I wasn't as handsome as some other guys, but I was OK with that.

All over the world, young men and young women will always dream dreams.

The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.

The ambition, the drive, the wanting to be the center of attention, the wanting to succeed... They're all inside me somewhere.

I didn't go out looking for negative characters; I went out looking for people who have a struggle and a fight to tackle. That's what interests me.

Don't let people treat you like a cigarette, they only use you when they're bored and step on you when they're done. Be like drugs, let them die for you.

I work constantly but I work at a lot of different things. You know, I run a theater company in New York, I direct plays, act in plays, in movies, so I try to keep it eclectic.

No one wants to be pretentious about what they do or take it seriously, because that is just weird.

I think you should be serious about what you do because this is it. This is the only life you've got.

To be loved, I think, is the thing that gets you up in the morning.

Writers don’t get time off. Every moment - waking or sleeping - a writer is working, observing, thinking and creating.

Man cannot really improve himself without improving others.

The Commons is one of the most depressing and intellectually unstimulating places in the country. [On the state of British politics

I love hearing my song on the radio the first time, but when it comes on again, I change the station. I already have so much of the spotlight on me. I don't need any more.

I was keenly aware that I had a unique opportunity, a front row seat, on an unfolding story and nobody else was going to see it from quite the vantage point that I saw it.

I am nervous about dogmas of any kind, whether they be religious, political, or anti-religious. Too many heads have rolled because of them.

To have a job where you can make things better for people? That's a blessing. Why would I do anything else?

Michael Joseph Jackson's genius was the ability to be the raw article himself - the real article himself. He is part of the African American people who were marginalized.

Airplanes have dulled and desensitized us; we are encumbered, like lovers in a suit of armor.

Remember that this is not something we do just once or twice. Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.