The Greeks really believed in history. They believed that the past had consequences and that you might be punished for the sins of your father. America, and particularly New York, runs on the idea that history doesn't matter. There is no history. There is only the never-ending present. You don't even have your family because you moved here to get away from them, so even that idea of personal history has been cut at the knees.

I like to be alone, I mean, I really love to be alone more than anything else, and I don't really like to talk about myself to death, and I don't like to share too much, and I don't really have dreams of extreme fame or even extreme respect.

I'm ultimately not so much of a professor as a progresser. And I'm ready to move away from what I consider to be this weird mid-century dream that I feel pulls us as a country, and us as a culture, backward.

It's just as political, what you do in the bedroom is just as political as what you do in public.

There is a value to moving more slowly through a story.

I was never afraid on stage. That's where I was the least afraid. I could just do what I do and I had the amplification and the lights.

I don't think secrets are a bad thing. I think there's this idea that everything needs to be transparent in order for it to be free.