“Regarding this Dhamma, it is not something that we can simply talk about or take another’s word for it.”

If you let go completely you will have complete peace.

No. It’s simply a thorn. It doesn’t give suffering to anybody. If we step on it, we suffer immediately.

Letting go a little brings a little peace. Letting go a lot brings a lot of peace. Letting go completely brings complete peace.

If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.

If you let go a lot you will have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely you will be free.

Whatever he taught, we should practise it. Only bowing to him is not enough. We need to renounce, give up, stop, so that we may see the Buddha.

One day some people came to the master and asked: How can you be happy in a world of such impermanence, where you cannot protect your loved ones from harm, illness or death?

Your only job is to stay in your seat. You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this, wisdom and understanding will come.

Therefore we have to train our mind. The meditation practice in Buddhism is all about training one’s own mind.

When nature finally calls, they have no idea where to go and are in a mess.

If you reflect in this way, you will have peace. Wherever you are, you will have this attitude of practice with you constantly.

When coming out of sitting, don’t think that you’re coming out of meditation, but that you are only changing postures.

You should think about your own death 3 times per day at the very least.

The ultimate truth is like the flavour of an apple which you can’t see with the eye or hear with the ear.

See the world as a mirror. It is all a reflection of the mind. When you know this, you can grow in every moment, and every experience reveals truth and brings understanding.

Just go into the room, sit in the centre of the room, open the doors and windows, and see who comes to visit.

Improvisation sometimes seemed more like jazz than acting, like verbal jazz, with the actors playing a theme back and forth, and then introducing another themeM

I was watching Revolution, and the things I did in that picture, holy smokes! I can’t believe I did that, it’s like another person. It’s the thought of it, it’s just appalling to me.

That is an important part of my success. Another big part of my success is that I hated not to finish a race.

There is a famous Russian cartoon in which a hippopotamus, in the bush, points out a zebra to another hippopotamus: ‘You see,’ he says, ‘now that’s formalism.

The finest proof of our loyalty toward one another was our monstrous disloyalties towards everyone else.

The best cure for one’s bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person.

[Marlon] Brando’s a giant on every level. When he acts it’s as if he landed from another planet. A planet where they produce great actors.

If I could find the right kind of property, get tied in with the right movie, I’d love to be involved, but I just find it hard to be motivated to do another screenplay right now.