I tend to be a kind of left federalist. There's a value to more power of certain kinds being positioned at a more local level.

People think that the politician is just part of a system, and whether they're lying or not doesn't matter.

People respond to political characters in archetypal ways. A fun game is to think of a politician and ask, "Which god is that? Are they like Aries? Are they like Athena?"

Oftentimes people get it wrong when they say we need to educate voters first and then give them power. I tend to favor giving them power first.

One of the most dangerous things about Fox News isn't that it's right wing but that it's nihilistic. It takes away the capacity to believe in politics.

There is a long American tradition of suspicion of concentrated economic power because of its tendency to corrupt government and turn it from a democracy into a plutocracy.

My current goal is to change the way we think about antitrust and anti-monopoly.

I think the reason you see so many people dropping out of politics is because there's an anti-poetic strain in modern political discourse.

New York City is one of the most vulnerable cities in the world to climate change, so I see Keystone as the central threat to New York.

There's a tendency, especially among academics, to see politics as deeply dirty and deeply egotistical.

Creativity is essential to any kind of joyful living. Sometimes I act, sometimes I draw, I paint, I write poems. I can't imagine living without it.

My dad always says that kindness is our religion and if we treat everybody the way we would like to be treated, the world would be a better place.

Let it be then let it go.

The romance of travel wasn't always terribly evident to those who were actually experiencing it.

They say God gives the hardest battles to his strongest soldiers

When I say that a good picture has surprise quality or shock appeal, I do not mean that it is a loud or vulgar picture but, instead, that it stimulates my thinking and intrigues me.

The greatest obstacle to discovering the truth is being convinced that you already know it.

[Jack Johnson] really helped me make the record, put it out, and then let me tour with him for two years. He really helped me out.

The time of Jesus and grace has come.

As a ten-year-old boy, the Thief of Eddis could stop a grown man in his tracks with a single look. Where had that look gone?

Many, many things are dangerous in our world, commercials and TV are dangerous, and so is the world of sitcoms. But nobody does anything about them because they're turning in alot of money.