When you start reading nonfiction books about piracy, you realize that it's actually just a history of desperate people.

There is no way of knowing for sure whether or not you can trust someone, for the simple reason that circumstances change all of the time.

it is a sad truth in life that when someone has lost a loved one, friends sometimes avoid the person, just when the presence of friends is most needed.

It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wearing an ugly hat it is hard to control yourself.

[I]t was the color of someone buying you an ice cream cone for no reason at all.

The thing with your heart's desire is that your heart doesn't even know what it desires until it turns up.

When I wrote Rick, I had the idea that I would take the plot of nearly every opera and turn it into a dark film, which is something I still may do.