Maybe ‚loner‘ is too strong a word, but I’ve always enjoyed being on my own.

Your life must be a progression towards ownership – first mentally of your independence, and then physically of your work, owning what you produce.

I’m not critic-proof, and I still take it personally, but I take it less personally now.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

Bread without flesh is a good diet, as on many botanical excursions I have proved. Tea also may easily be ignored. Just bread and water and delightful toil is all I need – not unreasonably much, yet one ought to be trained and tempered to enjoy life in these brave wilds in full independence of any particular kind of nourishment.

Everybody has done something that we wish we didn’t say or do and wish we could take it back.

Mickey Mouse is, to me, a symbol of independence. He was a means to an end.

Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

Can people who hunger so desperately for what other people have ever have enough?

Some people can just let things go, but I can’t, especially if there’s something that worries me or makes me sad.

I spend a lot of time balancing between faith and disbelief.

Well, there are some things that I just can’t get out of my head, and they start to annoy me after a while. Sometimes they’re of my own creation, as well – and they’re just as annoying. It’s not only other people’s ear worms that bug me, it’s my own, as well.

Hermits have no peer pressure.

We grow older, but we do not change. We become more sophisticated, but at bottom we continue to resemble our young selves, eager to listen to the next story and the next, and the next.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

In the egoic state, your sense of self, your identity, is derived from your thinking mind – in other words, what your mind tells you about yourself: the storyline of you, the memories, the expectations, all the thoughts that go through your head continuously and the emotions that reflect those thoughts. All those things make up your sense of self.

Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don’t know how to manage it.

I don’t like begging money from producers.

I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity.

Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.

Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can – that is their secret.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can’t I just be an ordinary woman?

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

God is speaking to us. But are we listening to Him? When our conscience begins to nudge us for whatever reason, we might have this low-level misery or uneasiness about whatever it is we’ve done or we’re about to do. At times like this, it’s wise to prayerfully consider whether we’re offending God with our actions.

Writing is a solitary experience. I’m extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It’s so intimate, I can’t even share it with my wife.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

Many a man thinks he is patient when, in reality, he is indifferent.

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

When you learn about the teaching and the practice of another tradition, you always have a chance to understand your own teaching and practice.

My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people’s kids than I did my own.

Honestly, I’ve been thinking lately about how boring I am. When I do get time to myself, I watch TV.

A smart girl leaves before she is left.

Our position is that we do not accept conditions of any kind which may affect the independence and sovereignty of our country just with the view to solve economic problems existing between the United States and Cuba.

I think I have a dualistic nature.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

Even though I write about the human race, the further away from them, the better I feel. Two miles is great; two thousand miles is beautiful.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

Sometimes when you make a film you can go away for three months and then come back and live your life. But this struck a much deeper chord. I don’t have the ability yet to speak about it in an objective.

With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else’s ideas about you, but what’s important is how you feel about yourself – for survival and living day to day with what comes up.

I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Of course there are moments that you wonder how long you should be doing it because there are other aspects which are not nice, of this lifestyle. But I just love winning.

I’m on record that it didn’t really traumatize me to do away with some people.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o’clock in the morning can only produce writing that matches what they do. And that includes me.

I saw a picture of myself when I came out of the hospital. I didn’t recognize myself.

God is absence. God is the solitude of man.

I work hard for the audience. It’s entertainment. I don’t need validation.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

For me, one of the toughest things about Valentine’s Day is that it gets geared up as the day to profess your love. See, T-E-S-T – that’s a bad word that doesn’t go with L-O-V-E.

Don’t ever forget two things I’m going to tell you. One, don’t believe everything that’s written about you. Two, don’t pick up too many checks.