Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary ‚real‘ world.

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

Last year we said, ‚Things can’t go on like this‘, and they didn’t, they got worse.

Any good piece of material like Shakespeare ought to be open to reinterpretation.

It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life.

Yesterday’s just a memory, tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be.

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

I’m rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it’s no longer his… I just see what people make of it.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that are in all the other museums.

There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

Perhaps it’s good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he’s happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

To do a dull thing with style-now that’s what I call art.

All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike.

I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

Humanity I love you because when you’re hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.

Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn’t any good reason to refer to it.

I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.

Every President I think I’ve ever known, except Truman, has thought they didn’t quite get done what they wanted done. And toward the end of their Administrations, they were disappointed and wished they had done some things differently.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn’t matter. I’m not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for.

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

I look at athletes in all sports and try to picture what kind of football player they’d be, what position they’d play and so on.

I’m born with a pencil in my hand. I did lots of sketching.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

To insult someone we call him ‚bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, ‚human‘ might be the greater insult.

The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

It’s a question of whether we’re going to go forward into the future, or past to the back.

I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are or the level of service that we’re providing for people or the quality of the teams that we built. But if you look at this objectively, we’re doing so well on so many of these things. I think it’s important to have gratitude for that.

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

Sometimes we look back and 10 years from now we think, ‚Boy, those were great old days.‘ Well, you know, we’re living in the good old days.

When you’re around kids you can be a little kid yourself and pretend that life is magic and you don’t have to be one of those sweaty people going to work every day.

I imagined being a famous writer would be like being like Jane Austen.

When I was making ‚Star Wars,‘ I wasn’t restrained by any kind of science. I simply said, ‚I’m going to create a world that’s fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it.‘

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

All good art is an indiscretion.

Well, the future for me is already a thing of the past.

Thirty-three-years-old, still creating art. It’s rage, it’s creativity, it’s pain, it’s hurt, but it’s the opportunity to still have my voice get out there through music.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I’m not sure it’s the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.

Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can’t do that. It’s gone, gone forever.