It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.
Anybody who goes searching can find enough artistic things I've done that nobody can ever say I sold out.
We depend on the critics to give us a glimpse of what happened. Bernard Shaw championed Ibsen, who got the most terrible notices for his plays. Kenneth Tynan championed young writers, and as a result, the theatre has changed radically.
I like people who tell stories. I like storytellers. A lot of my songs are misconceived as being auto-biographical when they're not because I write in the first person.
In my own case, who have spent my whole life in the practice of virtue, right conduct from habitual has become natural.
You know what they call the fellow who finishes last in his medical school graduating class? They call him 'Doctor.'
One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
There are a lot of idiot fund managers out there who add no value to the process at all.
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win - essential to success.
Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.
Partying is not a sane way to spend money, but it's fun. When we were young, we did not have a lot of money at all, so I thought, 'If I ever get rich, I'm not going to become one of those boring rich people who doesn't spend money.'
Anyone who has ever spent time listening to a legislature knows the astonishing speed at which all presiding officers and reading clerks can spit out the formulaic incantations of parliamentary procedure.
I get a friend to travel with me... I need somebody to bring me back to who I am. It's hard to be alone.
I know black kids who don't even know any other black kids except their cousins. And that's enough. You wouldn't look at these kids and say that they are Uncle Toms or self-hating or fleeing or trying to be white, given the culture in which they live, which is very natural to them as kids.
Oh, she didn't schlep me. I schlepped her, actually. I was the one who wanted to be an actress.
I'm proud of the fact that I've taken a lot of big directors, such as Trevor Nunn and Nick Hytner, who were musical virgins, and introduced them to the form.
Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.
The best governor in the world is the person who never really planned to be governor.
Donald Trump, despite his campaign promises, this is not a guy who is going to be willing to send executive power that belongs to the legislative branch back to the legislative branch. I mean, Donald Trump is going to try to amass and consolidate power, given that he's an authoritarian.
Right now the only people I can really fall in love with are people who don't really, truly want me around. Now why do I do that?
I'm very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That's my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it's not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.
When I sing, I have a sense of peace, I feel like my brain turns off, and I become the core person of who I am - the essence of me. I feel connected to whatever is out there. It's almost like I leave my body and get to watch.
To fight for one's country, to offer one's very life to promote the well being of the United States, is truly a noble undertaking. But so is the vigilance of the citizen who carefully examines our leaders to see if political problems are being solved by wars simply because this seems to be the easiest solution.
It's like fiction - the fact that somebody's telling you a story about people who didn't exist doesn't make the experience of the story any less real in your heart and mind. You go through heavy emotional responses to these stories, and wrestling is a similar thing - but it's happening in real space.
I am, as are most writers, just hugely obsessive, and so are many of my closest friends, who tend to be writers or scientists. It's a trait of human nature that I'm particularly in touch with. So I tend to project it onto my characters.
The person who does not know how to live while they are making a living is a poorer person after their wealth is won than when they started.
Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes.
While some of them acknowledge the obligation of natural morality in their mode of conducting their cases, and preserve their individual character as gentlemen, there are others who acknowledge no law, human or divine, but the law of Scotland.
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
Those who insist on having hostilities with us, kill and destroy the option of friendship with us in the future, which is unfortunate because it is clear the future belongs to Iran and that enmities will be fruitless.
It's worth being suspicious of writers - or anyone! - who does that myth-making thing. There's always a tendency to retrospectively impose structures on a life. Life as it's lived has a far more complex shape.
I used to have nightmares about the Antichrist - what would happen, where it would come from, and who it would be.
I don't care who you are, you hear those boos.
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.
The situation of the Old Left was the theory of Socialist Realism, etc. It seemed pointless to argue. We stayed carefully away from people who wrote for the New Masses.
