If I am against the condition of the world it is not because I am a moralist, it is because I want to laugh more. I don't say that God is one grand laugh: I say that you've got to laugh hard before you can get anywhere near God. My whole aim in life is to get near to God, that is, to get nearer to myself. That's why it doesn't matter to me what road I take. But music is very important. Music is a tonic for the pineal gland. Music isn't Bach or Beethoven; music is the can opener of the soul. It makes you terribly quiet inside, makes you aware that there's a roof to your being.

We create our fate every day . . . most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.

I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen.

The waking mind, you see, is the least serviceable in the arts.

That we cannot rise equal to situations when we are in them — that is the tragedy of life.

Voyages are accomplished inwardly.

Everyman, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths.