An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination it becomes my life and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house.

I believe in imagination. I did Kramer vs. Kramer before I had children. But the mother I would be was already inside me.

I don't want to discredit people's individuality but I think people are pretty much the same. People are very similar. If you have a good enough imagination then you can feel things that you personally have never done before. That's acting.

You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you but if you can't imagine something that has never existed before it's impossible.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise gratifies its curiosity and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

I was a little shocked at how adult some of the humor was because I was never that into animation before and when I watched 'Shrek' I really laughed out loud.

I genuinely liked all of the cast members very much. Steve had a wicked sense of humor. I remember Russell coming to my rescue once. I watched Eric evolve before everyone's eyes. Maurice loved what he did so. He treated his character with respect down to the costuming.

If you've never felt that you quite got a hold of it you just feel that before you die you've got to try and get it right once. And hope that the experience you have makes up for the some of the diminishing energy.

I hope that America as a whole and especially its architects will become more seriously involved in producing a new architectural culture that would bring the nation to the apex - where it has stood before - and lead the world.

Before I do a play I say that I hope it's going to be for as short a time as possible but once you do it it is a paradoxical pleasure. One evening out of two there are five minutes of a miracle and for those five minutes you want to do it again and again. It's like a drug.