"Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know."

"A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual."

"It is hard, I submit, to loathe bloodshed, including war, more than I do, but it is still harder to exceed my loathing of the very nature of totalitarian states in which massacre is only an administrative detail."

"To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of art over trash, the triumph of magic over the brute."

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."

"In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record - it's easy to discover who's in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don't appear on any organization chart."

"The essence of creativity is the belief that the echo of our deeds ripples through eternity."

"Dad said that he was prouder of me than he'd ever been when I came out."