“Wouldn’t it be great if people could get to live suddenly as often as they die suddenly?”

I was brought up by two extremely intelligent people who gave me the greatest gift that man can give anyone, and that is freedom from fear.

I’ve always thought men and women are not too well suited to each other. It’s inevitable that they should come together, but, again, how well suited are they to live together in the same house?

The notion that work is a burden is a terrible mistake. Working and facing up to one’s responsibilities: That’s happiness.

You are the only person you can actually change.

All my life, I’ve stayed at parties too long because I didn’t know when to go.

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

It is the plain women who know about love; the beautiful women are too busy being fascinating.

I realised long ago that skirts are hopeless. Anytime I hear a man say he prefers a woman in a skirt, I say, ‘Try one. Try a skirt.’

It’s either some kind of electricity or some kind of energy. I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is, I’ve got it.

Isn’t it fun getting older? is really a terrible fallacy. That’s like saying I prefer driving an old car with a flat tire.

I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they’re good or there because they’re lucky.

I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done; as long as I enjoyed it at the time.

If you survive long enough, you’re revered – rather like an old building.

Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do.

I don’t think that work ever really destroyed anybody. I think that lack of work destroys them a hell of a lot more.

I’m a legend because I’ve survived over a long period of time and still seem to be master of my fate – I’m still paddling the goddamned boat myself.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.

In my opinion, everybody is getting older and older. We have a great deal of dementia because nobody grew old enough to get it.

I’m not afraid of death. That is the greatest mystery of all. That’ll be it, that one. But it is all a race against time.

I wanted to become an engineer, or get a masters in business. But I had the opportunity to do films when I was about 25 and it was a great way to express myself.

I still practice Transcendental Meditation and I think it’s great. Marharishi only ever did good for us, and although I have not been with him physically, I never left him.

A great many people do not have the right to their own opinion because they don’t know what they are talking about.

It was great fun. We had gone on tour in between the sessions and reconnected with the audience and got a lot of energy back from them, a lot of positive energy.