When you're writing‚ you're conjuring. It's a ritual‚ and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you're inviting into the room.
...and I'm standing on the corner of Fifth and Vermouth.
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.
There's no prayer like desire.
We are all just monkeys with money and guns.
When you say you're doing an opera, it's like when you're a seven-year-old and say, 'I'm off to Washington, Dad.' You kind of go, 'Sure. Sure you are, son.'