"The essays in The Great Taos Bank Robbery were my project to win a Master of Arts degree in English when I quit being a newspaper editor and went back to college"

"I said when I came into office that I don't want to be a great leader; I want to be a good democrat"

"The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you"

"Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life"

"Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day"

"Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm"

"It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice"

"We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it"

"Households, cities, countries, and nations have enjoyed great happiness when a single individual has taken heed of the Good and Beautiful. Such people not only liberate themselves; they fill those they meet with a free mind"

"I just had lunch with Slash two days ago. He loves Axl. He holds no grudges towards him. Twenty years of great music wasn't created because of some stupid grudge. That's a shame"

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities - brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems"