I knew, as I had always known, that the only way you can head people off from using who you are against you is to be honest and open first, to talk about yourself before they talk about you. It wasn’t even courage. Speaking up was a protective mechanism for myself.

The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles.

If you are always guided by passion and compassion, you will truly have a life of meaning.

Can you imagine how terrible it is when you've got everything and you're still desperately lonely? That is awful beyond words.
I'm so powerful on stage that I seem to have created a monster. When I'm performing I'm an extrovert, yet inside I'm a completely different man.

The more you read and the more you teach yourself, the less you rely on something like drugs to take you to a better place.

The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known.

I hope that you will always speak the truth boldly, saying what needs to be said no matter whom you're addressing. When it comes to championing a just cause, you must never be cowardly, never fawn, never try to curry favor.

If your aspirations are not greater than your resources, you’re not an entrepreneur.

If you make this much of a fuss about one poem, you're never going to win that Nobel Prize.

[to Gail Stanwyck, who answers the door wearing a towel] Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo.

I'll fuckin', I'll fuckin', sew your asshole closed, and keep feedin' you
And feedin' you, and feedin' you, and feedin' you.

I was very dirty back then. Even now, I’ll look back on those days and think: ‘God, you were disgusting.’

No child should have to die for going to school, Nowhere should teachers fear to teach or children fear to learn. Together, we can change this picture. … And together let us follow the lead of this brave young girl, Malala. Let us put education first.

Listen, if you're from Arizona I'm not making fun of your home. I'm making fun of you for gathering there and building a community in an oven. Smooth move.

Whom the gods love die young," was said of yore.

Students, when you want to say something, think about it three times before you say it. Speak only if your words will benefit yourselves and others. Do not speak if it brings no benefit.