The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

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.

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

I like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews. I think it’s a better way of telling the stories.

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

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.

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

The foolish man conceives the idea of ‚self.‘ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‚self;‘ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.

Collecting facts is important. Knowledge is important. But if you don’t have an imagination to use the knowledge, civilization is nowhere.

We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.

People think I’m a celebrity. I’m not a celebrity.

Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.

It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.

I praticed making faces in the mirror and it would drive my mother crazy. She used to scare me by saying that I was going to see the devil if I kept looking in the mirror. That fascinated me even more, of course.

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

There are very few people who really appreciate my shows. People come to the show and they pay and they enjoy it, but I don’t really think most people really understand what they’ve seen.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

I’m never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.

A reader can never tell if it’s a real thimble or an imaginary thimble, because by the time you’re reading it, they’re the same. It’s a thimble. It’s in the book.

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination.

I never dreamt, in my dream, I’m Dalai Lama.

A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.

If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly than aesthetics will see its moral lesson. It will fill the cowardly with terror, and the unclean will see in it their own shame.

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.

I affirm to you the tremendous potential you have, not beyond anything you could ever imagine.

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.

Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.

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.‘

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

Begin noticing and being careful about keeping your imagination free of thoughts that you do not wish to materialize. Instead, initiate a practice of filling your creative thoughts to overflow with ideas and wishes that you fully intend to manifest. Honor your imaginings regardless of others seeing them as crazy or impossible.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

A way to make new music is to imagine looking back at the past from a future and imagine music that could have existed but didn’t. Like East African free jazz, which as far as I know does not exist.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

You can’t be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who’s for you and who’s against you.

You do get certain publications in the States where, if things don’t go according to plan, they flip the story and it becomes very negative.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

For me, the world that I inhabit in reality is probably a very different world than the one people expect that I would be in.

There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

Genius… means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday’s dream. Because it is a dream, there are so many contradictions and I have to adjust them to make the story work. But, in principle, the original dream does not change.

It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.

I was enjoying myself writing, because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I take a ride around that corner. You don’t know at all what you’re going to find there. That can be thrilling when you read a book, especially when you’re a kid and you’re reading stories.

Considering their impact, you might expect mosquitoes to get more attention than they do. Sharks kill fewer than a dozen people every year, and in the U.S. they get a week dedicated to them on TV every year.

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.

Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.

Is it weird in here, or is it just me?

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.

Science fiction, to me, has not only things that wouldn’t happen, but other planets.

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.

I’m personally more struck by visual things more than musical.

My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.

A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.

If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.