Why would you design something if it didn't improve the human condition?

When design springs from an understanding of the people who are going to use a product, you begin to see forms that you would never have imagined.

The best way to know what people want is not by asking them, but by understanding them.

It looks like a galosh with electronics in it.

My ideal office wouldn't have a chair. You would do two things there: stand up or lie down. These are the body's most natural positions.

Today the telephone takes precedence over everything. It reaches a point of terrorism, particularly at dinnertime.

The less there is of a phone, the more I like it.

My family is everything. I am what I am thanks to my mother, my father, my brother, my sister... because they have given me everything. The education I have is thanks to them.

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.

The nice thing is that, at least in Los Angeles, I'm known as a character actor and I do auditions for other things besides just cartoon shows.

I became a writer because I love books, and I believe in their power.

I was born a slave-was the child of slave parents-therefore I came upon the earth free in God-like thought, but fettered in action.

LOOK back on time with kindly eyes, He doubtless did his best; How softly sinks his trembling sun In human nature's west!

No fantasies, I don't think. Most of my fantasies have already been realized.

As an actor, you try to bring as much of yourself to a part to try and create a feeling of authenticity and emotional truth and resonance.

A lot of people want to see this idealized version of heroism, all pretty and perfect, and I'm not interested in playing the goody-goody hero at all.

Anybody can build a building, putting some doors into it, but how many times have you been in a building that moves you to tears the way Beethoven's 'Eighth' does?