You come down here to console me. That is charming of you. You find me consoled, and you are furious. How like a sympathetic person!

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Your behavior is the sum total of your action and reaction to issues and people around you.

A timid question will always receive a confident answer.

Romance is alive and well in America, but the 50 percent who can't make it work fail because of selfishness. It gets down to that. You can't oversimplify it because every situation is so complex.

I love working with Lars [von Trier]! I've worked with him three times. I did the narration of Dogville and Manderlay.

Champagne makes you feel like it's Sunday and better days are just around the corner.

Live your life with arms wide open. Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten.

A first-person voice helps to ensure the uniformity and cohesiveness of the narrative; it gathers unto itself incidents and characters in its unstoppable progress toward the story's end.

I'm in the process of brainstorming with my marketing team and all that stuff, trying to come up with a concept for a late-night restaurant for people in Birmingham.

We have no hesitation in declaring that we are a military nation- in the cause of Kodo and the highest morality.

For a writer, its very attractive to stay in one world for a time.