“The little dissatisfaction which every artist feels at the completion of a work forms the germ of a new work.”

Being alone when one’s belief is firm, is not to be alone.

What will people say-in these words lies the tyranny of the world, the whole destruction of our natural disposition, the oblique vision of our minds. These four words hold sway everywhere.

Years teach us more than books.

Gratitude is a soil on which joy thrives.

If you sound great in the practice room, you’re practicing the wrong thing. Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

All men are selfish, but the vain man is in love with himself. He admires, like the lover his adored one, everything which to others is indifferent.

Of all afflictions, the worst is self contempt.

No mortal eye has ever fully seen a flash of lightning … for no matter how firmly we look, our eyes are sure to be dazzled.

Some men, like modern shops, hang everything in their show windows; when one goes inside, nothing is to be found.

Judaism lives not in an abstract creed, but in its institutions.

Truly, one gets easier accustomed to a silken bed than to a sack of leaves.

Weak men are easily put out of humor. Oil freezes quicker than water.

To acquire money requires valor, to keep money requires prudence, and to spend money well is an art.

It is only when one is thoroughly true that there can be purity and freedom. Falsehood always punishes itself.

To harbor hatred and animosity in the soul makes one irritable, gloomy, and prematurely old.

Only he is free who cultivates his own thoughts and strives without fear to do justice to them.

What works in a story is very different than what works in cinema. For example, dialogue in books: If you translate it too faithfully, it sounds a little stilted, because we often don’t speak the way we speak in novels. Oral language is much punchier, shorter sentences.

I get obsessed by little nerdy things in my corner that no one else is interested in.

I’m happy in the UK. I absolutely love it and I’ve finally got a great group of friends. I’ve got a lovely little flat and my work’s here.

Television is where you earn regular money so you can plan a little bit but even then only when you have a regular gig. If you’re just doing the odd appearance, you don’t know if it will carry on.

Three blokes go into a pub. One of them is a little bit stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability.

You can learn a little bit from everybody, so you should be able to work a bit with everybody.

I don’t roll like that but I’ve never been with a hooker either. Yeah, that’s good to say in an interview cause I feel bad a little because people grew up watching me and that’s a little disturbing.

There is little to be gained by seeking after the mysteries, for there is hardly time in a lifetime to master the plain and precious things.