Truthfullness to life-both fantasy life and factual life-is the basis of all great art.

I had been reading a fabulous book [The Man Verdi, by Frank Walker] about [Giuseppe] Verdi, whom I adore.

As a kid, all I thought about was death. But you can't tell your parents that.

You can start making up any kind of story if you want to.

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.

Children are tough, though we tend to think of them as fragile. They have to be tough. Childhood is not easy. We sentimentalize children, but they know what's real and what's not. They understand metaphor and symbol. If children are different from us, they are more spontaneous. Grown-up lives have become overlaid with dross.

I know there are supposedly happy people in this world. I never believed it, but I take it for granted. God knows, they're all on television.