I think it's better to burn out than to fade away... it's better to live out your days being very, very active - even if it destroys you - than to quietly... disappear.

It's better to burn out, than to fade away.

The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops. That includes the Irving Berlins and the Hoagy Carmichaels, the Harold Arlens, Cole Porter.

America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.

There is a certain sort of excess that is interesting, don't you think? And America is, of course, the most excessive place.

Flashy people aren't everything, you know. Even when they have frizzled hair.