"Well, love is insanity. The ancient Greeks knew that. It is the taking over of a rational and lucid mind by delusion and self-destruction. You lose yourself, you have no power over yourself, you can't even think straight."

“I guess I'm in a trivial pursuit question. It's really weird.”

“People are really happier with friends than they are with their families or their spouse or their child.”

“Don't be a jerk. Try to love everyone. Give more than you take. And do it despite the fact that you only really like about seven out of 500 people.”

“I'm done with effects movies for now. When you do a movie like 'Transformers,' it can feel like you're doing three movies at once - which is tiring.”

Source : "Master of Machines". Interview with Lauren A. E. Schuker, www.wsj.com. June 25, 2009.

“I believe that the freedom of speech should be protected, but so should a family's right to privacy as they grieve their loss. There is a time and a place for vigorous debate on the War on Terror, but during a family's last goodbye is not it.”

“All the women that are first born daughters in my family are named Mary, but we've all been given nicknames. I don't know how or why that started, but I'm nicknamed after my great-grandmother, who was Mamie. No one ever calls me Mary, except only if my husband is very serious about something.”

Source : "Emily Owens, M.D. Star Mamie Gummer Reveals Her Mom's (Meryl Streep!) Movies That Make Her Laugh, Cry, and Watch Again and Again". Interview with Jessica Radloff, www.glamour.com. October 16, 2012.

“Jazz music hashaunted America for seventy years.It has tempted us out of our lily-white reserve with its black promise of untrammeled joy.”

Source : 1979 Preface to reprint of The Horn.

“If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.”