"We left the fear at home."

"Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone."

"When we love a person, we accept him or her exactly as is: the lovely with the unlovely, the strong with the fearful, the true mixed in with the façade, and of course, the only way we can do it is by accepting ourselves that way."

"He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived."

"I think I was so successful, not because I was brilliant, but because I was so young. I had no fear of consequences."

"A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom-he fears a drunken poet may crack a joke that will take hold."

"Blame is for God and small children."

"One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you're a star you're dead already. You're embalmed."

"I wanted to find my limitations so I decided to do Shylock. And if I fail? I've never been afraid of that. I have other fears - doing bad work knowingly is the worst fear."

"Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them."

"Our task, your task... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction."

"Stories have no point if they don't absorb our terror."

"That which we fear to touch is often the very fabric of our salvation."

"Fear is self-awareness raised to a higher level."

"Doesn't our knowledge of death make life more precious?' What good is a preciousness based on fear and anxiety? It's an anxious quivering thing"

"The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear."

"The slave of fear: the worst of slaveries"

"I don't know if I personally instill a fear in people, but I think that there are things that I have been involved in that perhaps stir up their own personal fears."

"Sometimes thoughts, fears, or other people get too loud and we can’t hear ourselves."

"If you try to get rid of fear and anger without knowing their meaning, they will grow stronger and return."

"I found Hollywood pretty bruising and uncreative. The executives are all in thrall to the boss, and spend their times double-guessing him or her, and trying to remember what he/she said and then applying them to the script, whether it was useful or not. They're all in fear for their jobs."

"Motor cut. Forced landing. Hit cow. Cow died. Scared me."

"I have turned away from the thought of writing fiction in the past through what I suppose is, actually, fear. The direct, raw invitation for the reader to come in and explore my imagination is fairly scary for me so I have busied myself with so much else."

"Why would I worry about getting older - what's to moan about?"