Controlled hysteria is what's required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It's agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing.

There are many who stay away from church these days because you hardly ever mention God any more.

He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.

An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.

Well, all the plays that I was trying to write were plays that would grab an audience by the throat and not release them, rather than presenting an emotion which you could observe and walk away from.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

Rise early. Write. Disappoint your sons. Read the newspaper. Go to bed early. Success.