The first time anything happens to you - your first love, your first success - the second one is never the same.

You learn to cope with whatever you have to cope with. I spent my childhood in New York, riding on subways and buses. And you know what you learn if you're a New Yorker? The world doesn't owe you a damn thing.

Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world.

I am essentially a loner.

I think I'm damn lucky. I'm lucky that my kids are all straight, that they haven't ended up in jail, that they're all worthwhile human beings, thank God. Their lives are happy; they have happy partners, wives, husbands.

It's not an old movie if you haven't seen it.

The best things in life are clean living, good works, and big saphires. And not in that order.