I've always had a tremendously optimistic attitude about life, and the setbacks are never really setbacks for me, because I see it as a part of the adventure. And if you don't hold onto your dreams, you're a very foolish fellow, because dreams are what life is about.

My parents are wonderful people and they instilled in me an idealism for which I'm grateful.

One of the problems with organized religion is that it has always kept women in a second-class position. They have been viewed as the daughters of Eve.

The phenomena there is something in us that on the one hand bonds us with like people but somehow makes us suspicious of other people.

I think that the major message of my life and what I hope to be remembered for is someone who managed to change the social sexual values of his time absolutely.

I was a very idealistic, very romantic kid in a very typically Midwestern Methodist repressed home. There was no show of affection of any kind, and I escaped to dreams and fantasies produced, by and large, by the music and the movies of the '30s.

I think getting married was a mistake along the way, but at the same time I wouldn't have the wonderful children I have if I didn't get married.