“Being clever was when you looked at how things were and used the evidence to work out something new.”

“Breeze turned to look out the window. "You were always the best of us, Sazed," he said quietly. "Because you believed in something.”

“The younger you are, the easier it will be for you to adapt to a new lifestyle or to a new profession. The older you are, the more difficult it is. The thing to watch out for is, being eaten by the system. So if you look at our politicians now, you will see that the older ones have a harder time letting go. And when that happens, they lose their usefulness. The younger ones can handle change, and they can accept losing a position.”

“This thing about looking for someone less different… It only really worked, he realized, if you were convinced that being you wasn't so bad in the first place.”

“After thirty years of looking at new work in galleries and even newer work in studios, I am very familiar with the experience of being completely at a loss when confronting a new idea or image.”

“It's the movies that have been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.”

“It's tough when you started out as young as I did to look back and see how far I've come. I try to be easy on myself and go 'Look man, you were younger, you were learning; you learn, you grow.' But I'm not my best judge. I always feel like my best work is still ahead of me.”

“Out here, you find out that the city fools you about how things really work.”

“You know how easily things grow out of nothing, when they pass through a mouth that smears them all over and makes something else out of them”

“When they see us dance. When they see how you look at me. When they see how I smile at you.”