“I think there are two keys to being creatively productive. One is not being daunted by one’s fear of failure, the second is sheer perseverance.”

“Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf bourguignon: If you believe that what you are called upon to do is wrong, you are unlikely to do it very well.”

“It’s easy for any of us to fall victim to our biases if our thoughts are rarely questioned by people who look, think and experience life different from us.”

“There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises.”

“To see what is in front of one’s nose requires a constant struggle.”

“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.”

“First of all, I don’t see America having problems.”

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

“Why is it called ‘patriotism’ when Americans chant U-S-A, but called ‘nationalism’ when folks from other countries chant for their homeland?”

“The Moral Majority Christians and the supply-side neocons always represented two of the worst and most vile impulses in the American character – mass, willful ignorance and total, shameless greed.”

“When the state is corrupt then the laws are most multiplied.”

“A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.”

“An error is not a mistake, unless it is not corrected.”

“The practice of art isn’t to make a living. It’s to make your soul grow.”

“Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have beer and hot dogs.”

“All that is not thought is pure nothingness.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“A definition of a sculpture: something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting.”

“Pull the string, and it will follow you wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.”

“The undifferentiated structure of unconscious vision is what the artist needs, and day-dreaming is its nursery name.”