“The challenge to the improvisor is to get permanence into his spontaneity.”

The challenge to the composer is to get spontaneity into his permanence.

Permaculture challenges what we’re doing and thinking – and to that extent it’s sedition.

I guess I just like to challenge myself and push myself harder to do things that I dont think I can, to do things that other people do not think I can. It pushes me. I push my own personal limits.

I need a little criticism while I make a record so that I kind of feel like: okay, I know that I’m doing the best that I can do because someone is actually here challenging it.

I find inspiration everywhere. I love challenges and my favorite thing is to find something ridiculous and be like “if it’s all that I have available to me, I am gonna make it look the best that I can”.

I certainly want campaign finance reform. I just wish this would do it in a way that would stand up to a constitutional challenge.

Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties.

One of the things that I learned is that you never truly know yourself until you challenge yourself.

In my career, there have been three things that were challenging: playing gay; playing a Jewish woman; and playing Anton Chekhov. The scariest part was playing Chekhov!