Ultimately all human activities have as their goal the realization of happiness. Why then have we ended up producing the opposite result? Could the underlying cause be our failure to correctly understand the true nature of happiness?

While I was trying to save money to go to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Australia I ended up getting all of this experience which meant that by the time I had enough money in the bank to go to school I didn't really need to go to school anymore.

Reading the play at home however fulfilling can never be the vivacious experience that Shakespeare intended.

No one ever pretended that shopping for anything is a rational experience. If it were would there be Fluffernutter? Laceless sneakers? Porkpie hats? Would the Chia Pet even exist?

No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.

I never intended for the Monster Ball to be a religious experience it just became one.

Experience is never limited and it is never complete it is an immense sensibility a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue.

Abortion is defended today as a means of ensuring the equality and independence of women and as a solution to the problems of single parenting child abuse and the feminization of poverty.

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming It is a scam. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming.

New Zealand needs to balance its environmental responsibilities with its economic opportunities because the risk is that if you don't do that - and you want to lead the world - then you might end up getting unintended consequences.

Brands must have a point of view on that purposeful engagement whether it's directed towards the environment poverty water as a resource or causes such as breast cancer or education. Merely declaring your commitment to a category or cause will not be enough the distinguish your brand sufficiently to see a return on these well-intended efforts.

I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers.

This may sound strange but I had dreams as a kid of doing exactly what I ended up doing in my life.

Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

Being in the design industry I've tended to meet more people who are affected by HIV and AIDS.

Well I never studied design and I went to art school to study art you know sculpture and things like that and ended up making things like sculpture and started making chairs and jewelry together and that's how I started.

Outside of the chair the teapot is the most ubiquitous and important design element in the domestic environment and almost everyone who has tackled the world of design has ended up designing one.

I was extended secret service protection during my presidential run in 1984 when I received the most death threats ever made toward a candidate.

Disease insanity and death were the angels that attended my cradle and since then have followed me throughout my life.

I was brought up by very witty people who were dealing with quite difficult things: disease and death... I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals.

My dad was a singer in a band and neither of my parents went to college and I ended up getting into Harvard and was the first person in my family that went to college and it happened to be Harvard.

My dad didn't want me to play guitar. He played piano so I chose that. And I ended up loving it.

My dad had emphysema and both of my parents had chronic bronchitis and ended up with cancers - all smoking related.

My dad took me to all the best rock and punk shows when I was growing up and music has always been a part of my life. So I'm very interested in the music scene and I suppose that's why I've ended up going out with musicians. Dave Pirner is still one of my best friends.