The worst violence we can do to each other often is psychological, especially in families. I dwell a lot on domestic danger. That's the backdrop of most of my novels - what kind of damage is done without ever lifting a finger.
Understanding who you are is saying, 'You're great; you have tons of confidence, and don't ever forget that.' And that helped me, man. Because when things weren't going right, I thought, 'You've got to remember who you are. Don't stray from that. Don't let these things get you down.'
I once won a second prize in a history concert. My parents came to the ceremony. Somebody else had won the prize for best all-around student. Afterwards my father said to me, 'Never, ever disgrace me like that again.' When I tell my Western friends, they are aghast. But I adore my father. It didn't knock my self-esteem at all.
I don't think it's anything you ever get used to... for many years, I could never sort of put my name in the same sort of category as the word 'famous' or anything like that. And I just found it very uncomfortable... if you get used to it, then something must be wrong.
I don't think women have ever thrown themselves at me, although I'm quite naive about these things, or was when I was available.
I'll proudly stand with one of the great leaders this state and country have ever produced: Rick Perry.
I doubt I'd ever do television to the extent that, say, Gordon Ramsay has.
In any character I ever play, whether she's good or bad or whatever, my most important thing is heart.
Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?
I knew I had to get out of Boston and stop making movies there, at least for one movie, otherwise no one would ever consider me for a movie that took place south of Providence.
Look, if I ever stop being grateful for gigs, I just need to stop. Because this business is... you know, it's just so kind of job-to-job, and the fact that I've continued working... I'm just incredibly thankful for it. And I never, ever take it for granted.
Most creative thing I've ever done? Got somebody pregnant.
If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and lone and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.
I like a shoot when I feel strong and sexy, a little hard, with a darker edge. That's what I do best. I like giving a photographer what they want, working with the art director. And modeling is all I've ever known.
Honestly, I'd love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I'm doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I'm doing.
I don't ever preach to people.
'Blazing Saddles' is one of the funniest movies ever made.
It's really hard for kids nowadays: you can get a decent education, but there are no jobs out there. You worry about how they are ever going to afford to live anywhere.
My favorite part was when my grandfather and I would make a special trip to Firpo's Bakery for red and green Christmas cookies and fruitcake studded with the sweetest cherries I've ever tasted. Usually Firpo's was too expensive for our slim budget, but Christmas mornings they gave a discount to any children who came in.
I don't think comedy will ever die.
I was in musicals. and I was in the choir when I was younger. Before I started writing my own songs, I thought I wanted to be on Broadway, but it was nothing I ever really pursued.
Our political machine, composed of thirteen independent sovereignties, have been perpetually operating against each other and against the federal head ever since the peace.
Jews have never, ever, ever wished to be separate, unless they were forced to be.
Most people write a lot of autobiography, but when I came to write autobiography I discovered that nothing interesting had ever happened to me. So I had to take the situation and invent stories to go with it.
I don't ever want anyone to think that I'm being judgmental. I gotta do everything I can do to not be preachy.
Duane Allman was the best guitar player I ever heard who didn't read a note.
I've gotten to go to far-off places in the world, have very unique, isolated, intense experiences for four or five months at a time, and then, kind of like a dream, those things disappear. You may see those people again, but it's never, ever going to be as intense as it was for that time period.
I started making movies in 1977, and I didn't even think about the idea that I would ever be on a television show. Once I finished the 'Guiding Light,' I was like, 'I'm done with television!'
The Olympics meant everything to me. Going through them is like nothing else you will ever experience. For those few weeks, you are in another world. At that point, I couldn't see how there could ever be anything better.
For some reason, ever since I was a little kid, I wake with the most energy of the day, and it slowly declines from there.
Every now and then, I get a free ticket from someone, and I look at the price, and it says $800, and I'm thinking, 'A thousand dollars to see,' I said, 'There's no ballgame in the world worth that kind of money,' and yet the attendance for sports is more than it ever has been.
You have started the book with this bubble over your head that contains a cathedral full of fire - that contains a novel so vast and great and penetrating and bright and dark that it will put all other novels ever written to shame. And then, as you get towards the end, you begin to realise, no, it's just this book.
You really have to stay true to yourself, as cheesy as that sounds. And you cannot take no for an answer, and you have to dream big. I think that's the greatest thing my family ever taught me: if you're going to dream, you have to dream so big.
Film would have been great, but I don't think I was ever in the frame.
It was probably in third grade - I had a super-fake gold herringbone chain. Yeah man, it was, like, super fake. I don't remember if it was my mom's or how I got it, but ever since then, I've loved chains. The first real chain I got was from Kanye. It was a Jacob the Jeweler Kanye West Jesus piece.
I would do a film, make the money, then take off for six months to Europe, India or Russia. My agent told me that I had to stay in town if I ever wanted to build a career, because everyone forgets about you.
