My mother is probably the wisest person I've ever known. She's not schooled, she's not well read. But she has a philosophy of life that makes well-read people seem like morons.

People who are the salt of the earth get up and go to a job that they hate.

England is a profoundly bizarre place that has produced thousands of bands the world has worshipped.

I voted for President Bush, I voted for President Clinton, and, although I do want my vote back, I voted for President Obama.

The most valuable lesson I learned in dealing with the ups and downs was to invest in my employees - to do all I could for them when the times were good.

The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.

I didn't have that many black people in my life, so I had to sort of search them out. And I didn't grow up in America, but I identified as much with their writing about the black experience as I did with their writing about the human experience.

Anybody who has gone through a life-changing experience will tell you there is a different understanding of what is real and what is important, and when you are going through different moments, you can reflect and go, 'I have been through worse.'