They have reduced the audience's level of receptivity to a bunch of monkeys asking for the same peanuts. And they are the same organ grinders giving it to them. If that sounds extreme, it's not. It's true.

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Don't sell your soul to buy peanuts for the monkeys.

The curse of television [is] the programming department-all trained to look for the same kind of show.

It's a very democratic instrument, everyone is reduced to the same amateur level.

I got to tell you, I think (deifying artists) was a huge error. You know, I think that allowing somebody…to believe that he or she is…the source of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche. It’s like asking somebody to swallow the sun. It just completely warps and distorts egos, and it creates all these unmanageable expectations about performance. And I think the pressure of that has been killing off our artists for the last 500 years.