Roald Dahl // "The life of a writer is absolute hell compared to the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk...there is nobody to scold him. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it."
John le Carré // "The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing."
Ingmar Bergman // "I am very much aware of my own double self... The well-known one is very under control; everything is planned and very secure. The unknown one can be very unpleasant. I think this side is responsible for all the creative work. He is in touch with the child. He is not rational, he is impulsive and extremely emotional. Perhaps it is not even a "he," but a "she."
André Gide // "What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself - and thus make yourself indispensable."
Tilda Swinton // "I suppose if there's one...sort of iconic gesture that I'm always looking for...it's the human face going, "Huh? Don't quite know what to do next." I like that "huh" because it forces one to dig deep."
Alexandre Dumas // "There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness."
Truman Capote // "You're wonderful. Unique. I love you."
John Lennon // "You have to do it yourself. That's what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books...the instructions are all there for all to see... I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you."
Keith Haring // "Whatever you want to do, the only secret is to believe in it and satisfy yourself. Don't do it for anyone else."
William S. Burroughs // "Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biological state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole."
George Harrison // "I remember thinking I just want more. This isn't it. Fame is not the goal. Money is not the goal. To be able to know how to get peace of mind, how to be happy, is something you don't just stumble across. You've got to search for it."
Gertrude Stein // "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. They listen so much that they forget to be natural."