I guess I'm the most successful man I know. I wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world.
Nothing goes on forever. I think that's one of the illusions of life. When I talk about my life being an extension of my dreams and fantasies, there's a tendency to think of them as immature. I live in a mature world. The majority of the people in this society live with delusions and illusions much more irrational and hurtful than mine. They deal with mortality, with fantasies relating to heaven and hell, and they don't really deal with their problems at all.
I think that there's nothing wrong with masturbation. If you're not feeling good about your own sexuality and your own body, you're not going to feel good about anything else.
I am not primarily an entrepreneurial businessman. I'm primarily a playboy philosopher.
I suggested that sex was not the enemy, that violence was the enemy, that nice girls like sex.
I had a stroke in 1985... I called it a "stroke of luck." I said, "Life is like a train trip. You're looking out the window and everything is whipping past and you're not really seeing anything, and you need to get off the train and walk around a bit."
I'm very comfortable with the nature of life and death, and that we come to an end. What's most difficult to imagine is that those dreams and early yearnings and desires of childhood and adolescence will also disappear. But who knows? Maybe you become part of the eternal whatever.
I think that retirement is the first step towards the grave.
I think that the major message of my life and what I hope to be remembered for is someone who managed to change the social sexual values of his time absolutely.
One of the things I've tried to do with my life is redefine the boundaries that I think are very limiting. I'm not suggesting that everybody should have three girlfriends, or necessarily have girlfriends living with them. I think there are many, many options to living your life.
One of the problems with organized religion is that it has always kept women in a second-class position. They have been viewed as the daughters of Eve.
I truly believe that age - if you're healthy - age is just a number.
We're separated by our myths.
The Puritans thought they could simply repress man's sexual nature, and they reaped a whirlwind as a result. Their code of sexual morality - which became America's - was nothing more than a set of rules laid down by people who believed that all pleasure was suspect.
You know, from my point of view, I'm the luckiest cat on the planet.
I was raised in a typical Puritan Midwestern Methodist home and there was a lot of hurt and hypocrisy in those times. And I think that whatever part Playboy played and that I managed to play in terms of the sexual revolution came out of what I saw in the negative part of that life and tried to change things in some positive way so that people could choose alternate personal ways of living their lives.
The whole 1950s notion was find the right girl, get married, move to the suburbs and then hang out with the guys while she stayed home with the babies. I felt that was sort of sad.
Without question, love in its various permutations is what we need more of in this world. The idea that the concept of marriage will be sullied by same-sex marriage is ridiculous. Heterosexuals haven't been doing that well at it on their own.
Beauty is everywhere - on the campus, in the office, living next door... Nice girls like sex too - it's a natural part of life. Don't be ashamed of it.
I think that sexual oppression and dictatorship go hand in hand.
The people who had the most impact on me when I was young were Freud and Darwin, but growing up I also had my film idols.
People get their information in different ways now. And we are a little poorer for it, because the way you get information affects what you learn.
Could I be in a better place and happier than I am today? I don't think so.
The religious heritage sort of suggests implicitly and explicitly that you pay your dues and you get your reward later on, that's a little inconsistent with the notion of personal, happiness. I am a strong believer in a set of values that are rooted in the notion of happiness and personal fulfillment.
Smoking helped put me in touch with the realm of the senses.
