I had tremendous fun fooling around with the way people talked about songs, just the way that became another way of understanding the world.

I think criticism, or a critical engagement with history, has a good deal to do with a willingness to be fooled.

It's very lucky when you have an artist - whether it's a novelist or a filmmaker or a singer - whose career you can follow from the beginning and feel that you are in some way part of it, or part of the same world that it comes out of.

When I'm struck by things, I want to hear more and find out more. I remember when Lana Del Rey was on 'SNL,' this supposedly disastrous performance. She's doing this pretentious torch song, and I thought, 'I don't know what she's doing, but it's really moving me.'

There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Given the weight of an Oscar statuette, one made out of solid gold would be worth $219,000. That twinkle in a winner's eye would be more than just a realization that he or she is a decent actor; it would be the joy of holding a chunk of metal worth a new Lamborghini.

All rationalism tends to minimalise the value and the importance of life and to decrease the sum total of human happiness.