Every accepted public quote

“The human mind, if it is to keep its sanity, must maintain the nicest balance between unity and plurality.”

“I was born during the war and grew up in a time of rationing. We didn't have anything. It's influenced the way I look at the world.”

“I have undertaken, you see, to write not only my life, but my opinions also; hoping and expecting that your knowledge of my character, and of what kind of a mortal I am, by the one, would gi...”

“If I want to do an orchestral record, if I want to do an acoustic record, if I want to do a death-metal record, if I want to do a jazz record - I can move in whichever direction I want, and...”

“For a professional writer in the Soviet Union, it works this way. First, you have to have something to say - that's the main thing. Second, it's a matter of who publishes you. If your book h...”

“People did pigeonhole me.”

“Are we interested in treating the symptoms of poverty and economic stagnation through income redistribution and class warfare, or do we want to go at the root causes of poverty and economic...”

“I have a friend that is a WWII buff, and we sat and talked a lot about stuff like the war and the reasons behind it, and you now it's all in the uniform. Once you're in it, it usually does a...”

“Being a good parent will necessarily break our hearts as we watch a child grow and eventually choose their own way, even through many of the same heartbreaks we have traversed.”

“In terms of pure acting, my role model has always been Philip Seymour Hoffman; I really always loved what he did. I love what Mark Ruffalo does. When I was younger, I liked Cate Blanchett a...”

“In the suburban Midwestern Reform Jewish world I was raised in, in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, grown men built plastic scale models of Israeli tanks and F-15 jets and displayed them...”

“I want to make movies that pierce people's hearts and touch them in some way, even if it's just for the night while they're in the cinema; in that moment, I want to bring actual tears to the...”

“Action films have a certain illogicalness to them. They're what we call, when we're working, 'exaggerated realism.'”

“You know, if you're a human and living on the planet, it doesn't matter what you do; you are not immune to the challenges, the trials, the difficulty. And that fact that I happen to be a coa...”

“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.”

“I lost court cases and misdemeanor juries, but of felony jury trials I was successful 105 of 106 times.”

“I'm a bit like a chameleon with my accent.”

“In Nova Scotia, there are some definite down-home accents, and it's funny because you can go to Sydney, and one guy is from North Sydney, and you can't understand a thing he's saying, or Gla...”

“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”

“Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement.”

“Let age, not envy, draw wrinkles on thy cheeks.”

“The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts.”

“The Prophet Joseph Smith lived in troubled times.”

“What kind of people would be able to rationalize better than other people? Better storytellers, right? Creative people, right? Because if you're creative, you find more ways to cheat and sti...”

“I think of painting without subject matter as music without words.”

“It's a great story for us whenever an entrepreneur makes a crazy amount of money and we get to tell the world about it. For the entrepreneur? Not so much. Hitherto unknown relatives, entrepr...”

“Sometimes suffering is the sacrifice you have to make to achieve greatness, success and your destiny.”

“There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.”

“Doing one movie every two years is about all I can handle 'cause, being the creator at '30 Rock', my year there starts in the middle of June and goes back around until March.”

“Contrary to what many secularists allege, the Constitution and Bill of Rights did not 'privatize' religion and quarantine it from the public square.”

“The Burgess Shale is not unique, but for those who study evolution and fossils it has become something of an icon. It provides a reference point and a benchmark, a point of common discussion...”

“I'm so glad that Hollywood and America are embracing women when they get in their 40s instead of putting us out to pasture.”

“If al-Qaeda had not had a home in Afghanistan, maybe 9/11 would never have taken place. God forbid if al-Qaeda gets another strong foothold in Afghanistan.”

“It is a childhood dream to be in the World Cup.”

“Perhaps the most powerful lesson other brands can learn from Nike is the need to act in accordance with the reality of the world we live in. In a mutually dependant, intimately connected glo...”

“There's always areas of the game you want to improve. For me, specifically, yards after the catch, making those tough, contested catches.”

“Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.”

“I used to do films for money earlier. I never knew what perception meant. I didn't give too much attention to scripts. It was either to buy a house or to buy a car. There was a certain frivo...”

“The last person I have ever criticized is an official. They have a tough job to do. Things are happening so quick.”

“Relationships tend to be flawed because they are made up of inherently flawed components, mere human beings.”

“The system of volunteerism is divisive. It pits one charity against the others for the charity dollar.”

“I argue that for every country to have an independent fuel cycle is the wrong way to go. Because any country which has a complete fuel cycle is a latent nuclear weapons country, in the sense...”

“I tried working odd jobs that had nothing to do with creating, and it was difficult for me. In the end, I just always loved movies. When I'm making a film, I feel most alive, like I'm doing...”

“We need to go back to the way it was 30 years ago, when everybody had Grandma and Grandpa, and we were willing to pass moral judgments about right and wrong.”

“Most observers understand the difference between a committed Christian who accepts Jesus as a model for living and a 'cultural Christian' who happens to live in a nation with a Christian her...”

“I am regarded as a usurper, as an imposter and dilettante, because I do technically come from the wrong side of the tracks in musical terms.”

“Not only are a voteless people a hopeless people. A non-producing people are hopeless also.”

“A great business at a fair price is superior to a fair business at a great price.”