“progress, whatever your definition of it, is not inevitable.”

We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities.

You know, I can’t remember my good reviews. I remember negative ones. They stay in my mind.

I never liked stardom. It’s weird to me. I only like the creative process. I only like the work.

Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each slice.

I do have friends that are Republicans, and we have very spirited conversations on a whole range of issues. I am often baffled by why they are Republicans, but I enjoy the dialogue and can move beyond politics to find common ground in my personal relationships.

I like simple things. Elastic waists, so I can eat.

The result [Republicans winning the Senate] would be devastating for reproductive choice, the environment, civil liberties, Social Security and health care, as well as corporate accountability.

I don’t feel like a legend. I feel like a work in progress.

I hear these melodies. I hear horn lines and string lines. That’s what’s fun about recording with an orchestra.

I’m sure that I don’t know everything I want to know. I have so much more to learn.

My friend Quincy Jones says we won our first Grammys together in 1963. I have no recollection. I don’t even remember the room. When he showed me the picture, I remembered what I wore. But it’s like awards don’t mean anything.

It’s like an American tradition. A person gets successful and then he’s supposed to change for the worse. It’s silly.

The dream – you never achieve it. The excitement of life lies in the hope, in the striving for something rather than the attainment.

Issues of foreign policy have a place in every election for President.

Everyone has a right to love and be loved, and nobody on this earth has the right to tell anyone that their love for another human being is morally wrong.

I’m not that ambitious any more. I just like my privacy. I wish I really wasn’t talked about at all.

I have a definition of success.

deferring gratification is a good definition of being civilized.

A fractal is a mathematical set or concrete object that is irregular or fragmented at all scales…

In mathematics and science definition are simple, but bare-bones. Until you get to a problem which you understand it takes hundreds and hundreds of pages and years and years of learning.

Mathematics is the science which draws necessary conclusions.

We have not yet arrived, but every point at which we stop requires a re-definition of our destination.

By definition a sequel can’t be original. So you’ve got to figure out what worked the first time around.

The definition of love is giving.