I always prided myself on at least trying to be literate and use the right words, and if the audience didn't get it, then they could go home and look it up.
If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend or, perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while.
One of the things I'm proudest of is, on my record 'That Was the Year that Was' in 1965, I made a joke about spending $20 billion sending some clown to the moon. I was against the manned space program then, and I'm even more against it now, that whole waste of money.
There's something mathematically satisfying about music: notes fit together and harmony and all that. And mathematics has to do with abstractions and making connections.
It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year.
It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.
An actress must never lose her ego - without it she has no talent.
The Army has carried the American ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on ability.
You can't be satirical and not be offensive to somebody.
Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them.
Counting in octal is just like counting in decimal, if you don't use your thumbs.
