So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you'll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper. Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they're 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn't meet their life expectancy. I'm here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.
Americans of our own time - minority and majority Americans alike - need the continued guidance that the Voting Rights Act provides. We have come a long way, but more needs to be done.
So long as we stand in need of a benefit, there is nothing dearer to us; nor anything cheaper when we have received it.
All day long you see those commercials: 'Here's Your Brain, Just Say No'. . . and the next commercial is: 'This Bud's For You. '
It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably.
You've got to make haste while it's still light of day. My godmother used to say, I don't want to rust out, I just want to work out. If you stand still long enough, people will throw dirt on you.
If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. They will make note of this and not remain in your debt long.
In theory, I'd like to work in a group. But the group I'd like to work in, all the musicians in them are long since dead.
Do what boxers do, sway with the punches. Don't resist. If any of what happens at work gets to you, just let it. You won't be able to shut it out in the long term anyway. Take it bit by bit, release it like a dam, don't let it collect until the wall develops cracks.
If you're paranoid long enough, sooner or later you're gonna be right.
Death used to announce itself in the thick of life but now people drag on so long it sometimes seems that we are reaching the stage when we may have to announce ourselves to death. It is as though one needs a special strength to die, and not a final weakness.
Plato is never sullen, Cervantes is never petulant, Demosthenes never comes unseasonably, Dante never stays too long.
. . . I wrote a letter to Thomas Pynchon asking, Can I have your permission to try to make an [adaptation] of your book? And I had no idea that he would answer me, because he's pretty elusive. But he did send a letter back that said, Yes, you can do that - as long as the only instrument in the opera is a banjo. I thought, That's an interesting way of saying No.
Ingmar Bergman is a long way from me, but I admire him. He, too, concentrates a great deal on individuals; and although the individual is what interests him most, we are very far apart. His individuals are very different from mine; his problems are different from mine - but he's a great director. So is Fellini, for that matter.
I do know without fear of contradiction what the definition of life is and it is 12 words long. 'Life is defined by how much you improve the lives of others. '
If anybody wants to engage in any kind of sexual activity with any consenting partner, that is their business. Anybody can do anything they damn well please, as long as the relationship isn't exploitive. And I don't feel that legality should have anything to do with it. There are certain bodily functions of mine which I will not allow to be supervised.
Now he had recognized himself as a dead man it became important to stay alive as long as possible.
You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.
Let others either envy or pity me; I care not, so long as I enjoy myself.
My long sickness Of health and living now begins to mend, And nothing brings me all things.