Knowledge is the driving force that puts creative passion to work.

You don't want to do something that's all terrifying.

If you're making it up, make it up good. And then believe in what you made up.

We're supposed to be civilized. We're supposed to go to work every day. We're supposed to be nice to our friends and send Christmas cards to our parents.

We're animals. We're violent. We're criminal. We're not so far away from the gorillas and the apes, those beautiful creatures.

I thought that if I were going into old age I would want to do what [Giuseppe] Verdi did, which is to write extraordinary things, and to really find myself.

Mothers and children are human beings, and they will sometimes do the wrong thing.