Were Quotes

We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

Let's face it - think of Africa, and the first images that come to mind are of war, poverty, famine and flies. How many of us really know anything at all about the truly great ancient African civilizations, which in their day, were just as splendid and glorious as any on the face of the earth?

I love vampire stories. That's why I did the movie. Women especially were taken with that movie-even more so when it came out on video.

We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.

I remember the 1940s as a time when we were united in a way known only to that generation. We belonged to a common cause-the war.

A lot of the carols were not as you hear them now.

In my subconscious, my books were part of a single emotional journey.

Many of those people involved in Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many were homosexuals - the two things seem to go together.

I don't think you can rely on Iran. I don't think you can rely on other radicals like the Taliban. They dispatched Al Qaida to bomb New York and Washington. What were they thinking? Were they that stupid? They weren't stupid. There is an irrationality there, and there is madness in this method.

The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.

When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.

I got along better with the guys than with the girls. Only two girls came up to talk to me. Later I found out they were telling their boyfriends, 'If you talk to her, I'll kill you.' It's always rough with that high school thing.

Women were real box office stars in the '40s, more so than men. People loved to see women's films. I think it was better then, except for the studio system.

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.

If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worthwhilenesses I have been lucky enough to have had. Not the sadness, not my miscarriages or my father leaving home, but the joy of everything else. It will have been enough.

I wouldn't have wanted to miss the opportunity to make those three films that didn't do well. They were really important to me, and the things I learned doing them were important to me.

Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.

Everything I am I owe to my faith and secondly to parents who were old school.

I heard endless conversations between my parents when I was going to sleep about how we would survive, how we would continue. All of them were about trying to make me better.

In America, politicians do whatever to get re-elected, and a lot of decisions that were being made at that time by Kennedy were certain not to get him re-elected.

I have deep emotions about the American people. If I were to cry for anything, I would cry for them and the policies that they're about to face.

I did stand-up comedy for 18 years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four years were spent in wild success. I was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a byproduct. The course was more plodding than heroic.

I remember one day sitting at the pool and suddenly the tears were streaming down my cheeks. Why was I so unhappy? I had success. I had security. But it wasn't enough. I was exploding inside.

Keep in mind that in 1975, when you became a cook, it was because you were between two things: you were between getting out of the military and... going to jail. Anybody could be a cook, just like anybody could mow the lawn.

I noticed there were so many people, especially women, who would come up to me having recognized me from TV and say, 'I heard you were a math person, why math? Oh my gosh, I could never do math!' I could just see their self-esteem crumbling; I thought that was silly, so I wanted to make math more friendly and accessible.

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.

Only very intelligent people don't wish they were in politics, and I'm dumb enough to want to be in there.

I've made some great mistakes in my life, but, you know, they were honest mistakes.

You have to be really loyal to the people that supported you when you were coming up.