If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey?
I wanted a woman who had the body and the power of a real pilot. I interviewed hundreds of woman, but Jessica just seemed perfect for the part. I couldn't get her out of my head. I continued to bother her and she finally gave in.
I started my career at 'Star Trek,' and that had a huge, very vocal fan base.
I've never had a relationship with a record executive. I always went to the record company by someone that liked my playing. Then they would get fired, and I'd be left with the record company. And then - because they got fired - the record company wouldn't do anything for me.
Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.
These kids understood what is not immediately obvious; that they were going to pay the bills for tax cuts that had been passed today or in the last 4 years, and for the war in Iraq, because essentially we are borrowing money to do those things.
We did a different show every night. We'd open a show, and then two weeks later we'd open the next show. And two weeks later we'd open the third show until we had all eight running. And it was just one of the richest experiences I'd ever had in my theatrical life.
You don't even want to look in the mirror after you've had a baby, because your stomach is just hanging there like a Shar-Pei.
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.
If you had an alien race that looked like insects, then they would build robots to look like themselves, not to look like people.
When I heard his first songs, Dylan was answering certain questions that I had all my life been asking myself.
I was a lawyer for 10 years, and several of my clients had the misfortune, through no fault of my own, of going to prison. I visited them occasionally.
I think because of my background - I went through university and did an academic career and fell into acting - I've never had a game plan for my career because I got into it quite ad hoc.
In the '80s, we at least had the idea of diplomacy.
With the help of a friend I got father into a wagon, when the crowd had gone. I held his head in my lap during the ride home. I believed he was mortally wounded. He had been stabbed down through the kidneys, leaving an ugly wound.
What had disappointed me at the time of the last tour, was to go on a worldwide tour, we were at some incredible places and we couldn't enjoy it, hadn't the time.
We weren't treated as prima-donnas. We had to roll up our sleeves and graft with the groundsman. Kids don't have to do anymore. That makes you appreciate things when it turns in your favour and you become a successful professional.
Freud had a gene for inefficiency, and I think I have a gene for efficiency.
If you had told me at 45 years old that I would have to go on tour to get rest, I would've said, 'That's not how it works.' But nothing can be more gratifying. I'm a very hands-on dad.
I literally couldn't walk down the street; I slept for 16 hours a day, was in chronic pain, had blackouts, never-ending heart palpitations, unbearable stomach issues, constant headaches - the list goes on.
It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.
I spent three years at RMIT doing a bachelor of arts and media studies. It was a hugely formative experience. As someone who had a private Catholic school upbringing, the world suddenly became a much bigger and better place for me.
I had already developed inherited back problems. I had degenerative disk disease, a form of scoliosis, arthritis. And I truly believe that if it weren't for the use of steroids - I'm not saying steroids is for everyone, but in my case in general, if I have not used steroids, I mean, physically right now I'd probably be a wreck.
Every principle of liberty enunciated in any civilized country on earth, with very few exceptions, was intended entirely for men, and when women tried to force the putting into practice of these principles, for women, then they discovered they had come into a very, very unpleasant situation indeed.
All the years I coached, we sent a card to every professor for each kid I had, and I was able to keep track on a daily basis who cut class or who was dropping a grade average. What I did was bring that kid in at 5:00 in the morning, and he would run the stairs from the bottom to the top until I told him to quit.
If I'd have went on the ice when this thing happened, someone would have speared me or something. It's a great feeling of accomplishment and pride. They had to do it; it was their moment.
I feel fortunate I have this amazing relationship with so many people in America, because I was in their homes at a very private time of day. They probably might have still had their robe on and their slippers and haven't made the beds.
'The New Yorker' was really my first experience with serious editing. Previously, I'd more or less just had copyediting with a few suggestions - not much.
I've had quite a life, when you stop and think about it.
I have never refused to talk to any authorities or give them any information I had.
For so long I wanted to win the gold medal. Then I won. I had to figure out what was the new motivation to take myself to that place again.
I have never been a professional model; I have had some modeling sessions.
The vice president had a bargaining asset, however, that no ordinary person has: He was next in line to the presidency. I saw no chance that he would resign first, then take his chances on trial, conviction, and jail.
I liked the idea of being from 'somewhere else.' I do think that's inherited. My father never had a fixed sense of where home was, and for my sister and me, it is much easier not to belong than to belong.
If there is not the war, you don't get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don't get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.
I was born in 1940 in Hathazari, Chittagong, which is now part of Bangladesh. Education was always important to my parents, and with what little we had, they were able to provide an education for their children.
