I think America, unfortunately, collectively thinks of itself as the 'chosen people.' To my knowledge, there are no chosen people, we are all human beings.

When something is over, it is over.

We just may be the most well-informed, yet least self-aware, people in history.

It seems to me that any full grown, mature adult would have a desire to be responsible, to help where he can in a world that needs so very much, that threatens us so very much.

Originally, with all the shows, we went looking for belly laughs.

You know, you throw rocks in the lake and scientists will tell you you're raising the level of the lake, but all you get to see is the ripple.

Maybe they continued to agree with Archie Bunker - as I said earlier, you can't change people's minds, but you can get them to think.

Life is about having a good time.

That's the heart of it: My shows were not that controversial with the American people. They were controversial with the people who think for the American people.

In the area we're discussing, leadership begins on Madison Avenue, on the desks and in the offices of people who spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying what will get them ratings.

I like getting up in the morning, and I like better having something to do when I get up in the morning.

Christmas is a season of exceedingly great joy.

The reason people will attack you never really has anything to do with you. It stems from their OWN evil thoughts that they entertain and from wanting and not getting their way.

The eighties were my teen years, so the GoGos are sort of a touchstone.

Love is not weakness. It is strong. Only the sacrament of marriage can contain it.

The writing I tend to think of as 'good' is good because it's mysterious.

Serving in the United States Senate has been the greatest privilege of my life.

It's always important for me as an actor to reflect human behavior for a sense of reality.

I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.

I wish I could [keep a journal]. I have a lot of journals with one page half written in. I sometimes will write myself a quick email on my Blackberry when I think of something.

Going there [Japan] in the early 80s was quite a culture shock. I think the bombardment of Shinjuku and all that would have filtered through, which certainly informed things we later filmed.