I don’t really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not.

I always tell audiences when I talk about writing: Writing isn’t something I do; writing is something that I am. I am writing – it’s just an expression of me.

In every movie I do have a dialogue.

I never make conscious decisions.

I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they’re good or there because they’re lucky.

We do need women in civic life. We do need women to run for office, to be in political office. We need a feminist to be at the table when decisions are being made so that the right decisions will be made.

What matters in the Sun-tzu universe are not positions of strength and power, but situations in which you have options, full of potential force.

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.

There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

The goal for me is always to have the opportunity to work in different genres. This is a great and exciting time in my career, where I can have the opportunity to work in different genres, and also I recognize there’s not a lot of actors who have that opportunity and I’m grateful for it.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

No one person controls Microsoft. The board and the shareholders decide whether they want to have me as CEO.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

There is a need for aloneness, which I don’t think most people realise for an actor. It’s almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you’ll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you’re acting. But everybody is always tugging at you. They’d all like sort of a chunk of you.

Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don’t find out til too late that he’s been playing with two queens all along.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

I’ve got a great sense of humor, and if I’m able to say or do something in a movie that people feel like they want to repeat, that’s hugely flattering.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

If I think too hard about a relationship, I’ll talk myself out of it.

If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‚right‘ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.

I’m for women choosing whatever they want to do but they have to really know what they are doing.

Why do I like to write short stories? Well, I certainly didn’t intend to. I was going to write a novel. And still! I still come up with ideas for novels. And I even start novels. But something happens to them. They break up. I look at what I really want to do with the material, and it never turns out to be a novel.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

My own books drive themselves. I know roughly where a book is going to end, but essentially the story develops under my fingers. It’s just a matter of joining the dots.

I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

I’d go from film to film and almost detach from one world and jump in another. I was living as these people and not having a self. I didn’t know who I was. And things just get really dark.

I never have an intended audience. I just write, you know.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

Probably the reason it’s a little hard to break away from the album format completely is, if you’re getting a band together in the studio, it makes financial sense to do more than one song at a time. And it makes more sense, if you’re going to all the effort of performing and doing whatever else, if there’s a kind of bundle.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

Every President wants to do right.

The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.

Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.

Never get married in college; it’s hard to get a start if a prospective employer finds you’ve already made one mistake.

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

I just usually go with my own taste. If I like something, and it happens to be against the law, well, then I might have a problem.

I don’t think I would run for president.

My role 14 years ago in Richard III – that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it – they have all the fun!

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.

There’s no difference between one’s killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It’s exactly the same thing, or even worse.

You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

If it wasn’t for the fun and money, I really don’t know why I’d bother.

I always have to be writing.

Acting helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.

I think, as far as branching out with acting, it would take something really right on the mark to distract me from music, because music is everything to me.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

You’re president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

I can never say ‚why‘ about anything I do. I suppose I can say ‚how‘ and ‚when‘ and ‚what.‘ But ‚why‘ is impenetrable to me.

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.