people are capable of profound metamorphosis, though unfortunately they rarely avail themselves of this genius, force of habit being an even greater enemy of change than cowardice.

every actor knows that tragedy, being linear and inevitable, is taxing - but comedy, which depends on the element of surprise, is the hardest act of all.

guilt politics ... I regard as conveniently paralyzing, ripe for backlash defensiveness, counterproductive, and boring.

in the United States ... given the cult of eternal youth, age is ignored unless it can be sentimentalized.

Listen - life is really going on, right now, around us. Do you see it? Sometimes I lose it but if I sit still and listen, it comes back, and then I think, How funny, this is what being alive is.

raised' consciousness means lifelong bumping up against a continually receding ceiling. I mean, who ever 'graduates'?

Crisis can be an addiction as powerful as any other.