The whole of society is like a cabbage-stalk covered with caterpillars, and none is satisfied till it has crawled to the top.

The natural idealism of youth is an idealism, alas, for which we do not always provide as many outlets as we should.

We know that, sooner or later, reckless government actions and policies have consequences. That when government corrupts the truth and breaks faith with the American people, the entire fabric of our...

I wanted to write as well as I possibly could to deal with life-and-death problems in contemporary society. And the form of Wilkie Collins and Graham Greene, of Hammett and Chandler, seemed to offer...

Think of a public library, worth more for those who cannot afford numerous books. Think of a public waterway or fishing ground. All types of commons have imputed monetary value that together comprise...

Does racism exist in this country? Sure. But I think the overwhelming majority of Americans who care about this country do not care about skin color.

As far as I'm concerned, you're a feminist by default if you're born in the Western world right now.

The default of our society is the reproduction of racial inequality. I mean, that's what it does; that's what it's been doing for hundreds of years.

I personally believe that a democratic society is morally entitled to set and enforce a limit on the number of new immigrants admitted each year.

The only point of government is to safeguard and foster life.

Royalty mostly seem like members of some anachronistic faith, like the Amish, peculiar in gilded buggies.

There is none to tell the rich to go on striving, for a rich man makes the law that hallows and hollows his own life.

How many of you have broken no laws this month? That's the kind of society I want to build. I want a guarantee - with physics and mathematics, not with laws - that we can give ourselves real privacy...

I believe primary and secondary education is the bedrock of any sustainable society.

I had a lot of difficulty growing up in a society where everything is very closed-minded, especially with beauty.

Are we changing the idea of what beauty is? Let's hope so. I'm not the typical Hollywood beauty. Let's hope we're looking at the insides of people a little more.

It became inevitable that television would address life's mundane problems because television itself is so mundane, part of the ordinary flow of time the way those problems are.

When you go to the big city - you're in New York, Boston, you're in L.A. - you walk in the streets, and nobody says anything to you. It becomes so impersonal because there's so many people.

We overvalue the arts in relation to the sciences.

I think there's a stigma to some degree about the outer boroughs and Jersey, and whether their stories are worth telling.

Admittedly I agreed with Rupert Murdoch that 'Page 3' is 'old fashioned' and the removal based on that is plausible, but surely 'Page 3' is an institution?

Knowledge is not just the preserve of the educated elite. Just because someone has not had a formal education, that does not mean he does not have wisdom and common sense.

Our religious police has the most dangerous effect on society - the segregation of genders, putting the wrong ideas in the heads of men and women, producing psychological diseases that never existed...

To have a platform to make a difference ultimately, which is what I want to do with my life, we've got to win football games. When you're highly paid and you're losing, no one really cares what you...

Our job as artists is to reflect the ills of society sometimes and to find a truth in that, and I think you can't start the healing process until you recognize the truth and all of its ugly warts and...

We have one authority and one law and everyone has the responsibility to follow that law and that authority.

Being famous is a bit dangerous sometimes.

I'm not your quintessential liberal.

When I was young and we got caught pinching apples, we got a smack from the local policeman. Today if that happened he would be sued. There is a tendency to punish the victim, not the criminal. If...

The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.