Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame; A grave to rest in, and a fading name!

Ambition is but avarice on stilts, and masked.

Every sect is a moral check on its neighbour. Competition is as wholesome in religion as in commerce.

Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.

I hope my children just grow up happy and pursue their dreams. I mean, that's all I can ask of them.

There's no private side to acting, which some people find hard. I've drawn inspiration from athletes. They manage to be themselves under the pressure of public scrutiny, and they have it much harder - they have to perform with people yelling at them.

For me, inspiration isn't a sort of spark which lights the fire of the story. It's more like a thread, one of many, which you can tease out of a story once it's written, if you feel so inclined.

I do work too hard sometimes, but my mom is such an inspiration. She tells me to 'chill out' and not take things so seriously. She will say: 'Go and have a massage.'