The idea is to go to bed every night with fewer enemies than you had in the morning.
But clearly at the same time you've got to get out there and connect with voters and actually respond to the needs, the frustrations, whatever problems their now saying are not being adequately solved.
When exercising, be sure to focus your attention on what you are doing.
I have been made redundant before and it is a terrible blow; redundant is a rotten word because it makes you think you are useless.
As performers grow older, I reckon there are two ways they can go. They can either be up there, playing more deeply from their guts than ever, or they can be phoning it in so crassly that it leaves a lump in your throat as you leave the venue at the end of the show.
Let us face it: in the world today, money and economic strength remain more powerful arguments than the number of people you represent.
You're in front of an audience, but you're playing for a camera. There's this huge adrenaline rush, because you know that besides the audience in the studio, there are millions of people watching at home.
When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely - the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears - when you give your whole attention to it.
Do you know what directors go through? It's just hell. Like, why do I work so hard - to think I'm only going to see this movie five times and then never see it again 'cause I'm so sick of it? What is it worth, honestly?
I run in the West Side highway. I've gotten recognized, but unless you're a runner, you really can't do nothing but just point.
It is very nice to have good actors with you.
Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it.
In a way, a stage can be the safest place to be visibly queer and non-gender conforming because you're literally surrounded by witnesses. Any type of violence that a person might try to carry out on you, that's just not a very likely place to do it.
You go to a Japanese restaurant and have a wonderful dish, and the thing to do is take a picture with your phone, put it on Facebook, and see how many likes you get. If you don't share your experiences, they don't become part of the data processing system, and they have no meaning.
If you want to send a manuscript, send it to an agent. And send a letter first, asking permission. Launch it into the real world of cold-blooded commercial response, not into the fantasyland of wishful thinking, cowardice and surrender to Resistance.
If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.
If you feel driven and compelled to make your work and to be fiercely original and have something unique to say, in a compelling way, then chances are the helpers will be there for you the doors will open some, the ice will crack.
I think I have a hard time expressing myself in my relationships. I use songs to tell people how I'm feeling. If I can't say 'I love you,' I'll write a song about it and hope that the person figures it out.
You can't really get as much done when you're worried about looking gross.
I am a feminist, and I define myself: Be yourself, because if you can get away with it, that is the ultimate feminist act.
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
I've been in a position before where a president has turned to me in the Oval Office in a difficult moment, without any pleasantries, and said, 'I'm asking you as your president and Commander in Chief to take command of the international security force in Afghanistan.' The only response can be, 'Yes, Mr. President.'
I think that comedy really tells you how it is. The other thing about comedy is that - you don't even know if you're failing in drama, but you do know when you're failing in comedy. When you go to a comedy and you don't hear anybody laughing, you know that you've failed.
You know why I'm running for governor? Because everything we care about is under siege from President Donald Trump and Bruce Rauner.
Passion is all but soft, it's not tender, it's violence to which you get hooked by pleasure.
A conventional playwright tries to tell you more about the characters than they know about themselves.
Kids will remind you that, even though you've gone down a road 100 times, it's brand new for them - and that's healthy.
You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music.
You got to look on the bright side, even if there ain't one.
Going into my second film as a director, it's night and day of what it was like going into my first film. It doesn't matter what you know in your head and what you've been taught until you're there and doing it; it's a whole new ball game.
Good planning is important. I've also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you're in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you're depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you laugh eases the tension.
From the Olympian heights of an executive suite, in an atmosphere where your success is judged by the extent to which you can maximise profits, the overwhelming tendency must be to see people as units of production, as indices in your accountants' books.
'Olive Kitteridge' is a masterpiece: The writing is so perfect you don't even notice it; the story is so vivid it's less like reading a story than experiencing it firsthand.
Film, schmilm. I'm telling you, television is so much harder.
If you're doing something like scheduling utility payments to come through your debit card or out of your personal checking account, that's perfectly fine. But there are much safer ways to handle situations with debt collectors. You can send a money order overnight, or wire the cash to them.
Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.
