“IN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: WHAT SCENES ONE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE FILMEDShakespeare in the part of the King's Ghost.The beheading of Louis the Sixteenth, the drums drowning his speech on the scaffold.Herman Melville at breakfast, feeling a sardine to his cat.Poe's wedding.Lewis Carroll's picnics.The Russians leaving Alaska, delighted with the deal.Shot of a seal applauding.”

“Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show.”

“(Regarding a twenty-questions game:)Did you know that the Russian composer Aram Katchaturian described his ‘Sabre Dance’ as no more than a button on the shirt on the body of his work? No? You’re not alone. Suppose my twenty-questions answer was that metaphorical button — would that be fair?”

“What gets left of a man amounts to a part. To his spoken part. To a part of speech”

“I am part-demon, part-human. What else does that make me?" She answered his question with one of her own. "I am part-centaur, part-human. Does that make me a mutant?" "It makes you a miracle." She held his gaze. "Exactly.”

“A lover goes toward his beloved as enthusiastically as a schoolboy leaving his books, but when he leaves his girlfriend, he feels as miserable as the schoolboy on his way to school. (Act 2, scene 2)”