“I think that life is a paradox and you have to embrace that in your work and your belief systems… you can't be a literalist, and that's the trouble that people always find themselves in. That's why people always hit a wall with any of my stuff, because you can't take it literally.”

“That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.”

“I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her.”

“I have always liked people who can't adapt themselves to life pragmatically.”

“Why are you ashamed of yourself?
What happens after that?
But I really like your way of walking
In which you head straight and always hit a wall.”

“I think that's what people most always do with the stuff they can't make out - just forget it.”

“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people”

“My mother always said to me, 'You're going to have to work harder and have to be better, and you can't take no for an answer.”

“It's not just women in film, 18-year-old girls feel pressure to do preventative injecting. I see someone's face, someone's body who'd had children and I think they're the song lines of your experience, and why would you want to eradicate that? I look at people sort of entombing themselves and all you see is little pin holes of terror… and you think, just live your life, death is not going to be any easier just because your face can't move.”

“I light a candle for you
and pray for your return,
ask God to lead you back,
'cause I can't find the words
to break through your palace wall,
and make you clearly see
it's safe to take my hand and fall
with me in that great deep.”