“I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.”

“Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.”

 “Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.”

“Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.” 

“I suppose that’s one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.

“In the end, everything is a gag.”

A man's true character comes out when he's drunk.

That which is apparent ends. That which is subtle is never-ending.

Remember, you can always stoop and pick up nothing.

Making fun is serious business.

Machinery should be a blessing to mankind and not a curse.

One murder makes a villain, millions a hero. Numbers sanctify.

The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.

We think too much and feel too little.

Let us strive for the impossible. The great achievements throughout history have been the conquest of what seemed the impossible.

“Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is ‘elephant’.” – 

Life and death are too resolute, too implacable to be accidental.

Whomever lives, gambles with life.

Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish. 

“I do not need drugs to be a genius, do not take a genius to be human, but I need your smile to be happy.

“Only after I saw women who were attracted to distant, condescending, even violent men did I begin to understand that having a distant, condescending, even violent father could make those qualities seem inevitable, even feel like home. Because of my father, only kindness felt like home.” 

“This was my first hint of the truism that depression is anger turned inward; thus women are twice as likely to be depressed.” 

“Thinking about our schooling in different decades and parts of the country, all three of us in that kitchen discover that we were taught more about ancient Greece and Rome than about the history of the land we live on. We learned about the pyramid builders of Egypt but not the pyramid builders of the Mississippi River.” 

“Secrets have power only as long as they are secret.”