Unfortunately, these past few years, you can work hard, try to be as successful as possible, follow the rules, and President Barack Obama will do everything he can to stand in your way.
For the past few years, I've been more selective than I have any right to be, but I think that's finally starting to work in my favor. I think I get way too much credit for making what people consider to be smart choices, but it's only because I made a decision to stop worrying about making money.
At the solemn moment of death, every man, even when death is sudden, sees the whole of his past life marshalled before him, in its minutest details. For one short instant the personal becomes one with the individual and all-knowing ego. But this instant is enough to show to him the whole chain of causes which have been at work during his life.
When I look back at my past mistakes, I realise that there were times when I wasn't myself, and that's why certain styles did not work well for me.
I should tell you that many people think that authors just cut and paste from real life into books. It doesn't work quite that way.
Every writer from Montaigne to William S. Burroughs has pasted and cut from previous work. Every artist, whether it's Warhol or, you know, Dangermouse or whoever.
In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented.
It's time to wake up to the reality that ignoring the genuine concerns of the 'fringe,' until it becomes the majority, is patently ridiculous. That the scapegoating of alternative opinions doesn't work.
The connection between pathos and broad comedy is very tight. But you do far more work in a comedy scene than you do in a straight scene. It's much harder.
Human connection is the way things work. It's like a patronage system. You know somebody, and he knows somebody, and he knows somebody, and he knows the district governor, and it's okay.
I've always been a feminist, and what I love in my work is being able to explore a full-sided woman and not patronize her.
The test of one's behavior pattern is their relationship to society, relationship to work and relationship to sex.
In 1969, at the age of 19, I was lucky enough to work with George C. Scott in the definitive portrayal of his career over a period of many months and several countries on the definitive film version of Patton's WWII career.
Paul McCartney would be the end all, be all. To work with Paul would just be amazing.
However great may be the work for which we are responsible, we will always do well if we pause to spend time in sacred praise.
When we asked people if they would rather have a best friend at work or a 10% pay raise, having a friend clearly won.
I pay lots of homages. I wanted to pay tribute to a leading Iranian writer, Gholam - Hossein Sa'edi, who is buried in Paris - he is an Iranian Arthur Miller. He is of a similar stature, and his work is similar to that of Arthur Miller.
My manager has a car payment, so I work every night.
Digital payments have already made it easier to move and manage money. While there's more work to do, the potential is real and understood.
I think that for the next short period of time, our No. 1 priority is Congress needs to do its work and extend the payroll tax cut.
