Civility is not not saying negative or harsh things. It is not the absence of critical analysis. It is the manner in which we are sharing this territorial freedom of political discussion. If our discourse is yelled and screamed and interrupted and patronized, that's uncivil.
I'm nothing if not honest.
Happiness has a bad rap. People say it shouldn't be your goal in life. Oh, yes it should.
It is an obvious and blatant stupidity beyond my ability to articulate how dumb it is for us not to teach our children how to run the government.
I really think that living is the process of going from complete certainty to complete ignorance.
I took the part in 'Mr. Holland's Opus' because no one had ever asked me to play 'a life' before. I get to age through 30 years. The idea really challenged me.
I think I'm turning into a libertarian. I'm not part of the gaggle of Hollywood liberals. I gaggle for no one, and I'm not a liberal. I'm libo-conservo-rado-middle-of-the-roado.
I have withdrawn from partisan politics. I am a constitutionalist who believes that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights must be central and the parties must be peripheral.
Let's give some substance to patriotism. It may take a generation.
Isn't it funny that God takes you and puts you through the unendurable, and then, at the moment you have just begun to understand it and have some wisdom, it ends?
I think I have the finest body of work of any American actor.
'Jaws,' first time I saw it, I forgot I was in it. True. Totally forgot, and got as scared as everybody else, and it's a great movie.
We mistake politics for legislative debate. You can be passionate without being personal.
I love the ideals of my country. But I hate that we've been so denied any real knowledge of the world and don't have the education to think clearly, so we vote against our economic interest and believe in our most shallow first thoughts of fear and hatred.
We need to get back to reasoning and thinking things through. The future generation is being brought up in greed and without a true understanding of civics. There is no more emphasis on knowledge and time. As a society we need to process ideas and understand what certain principles are based upon.
Television is hypnotic, and it hides among the furniture of your living room. It doesn't reveal itself, but it distorts everything.
John Kennedy really did extend the reach of the American people and said, like Lincoln said in a way, that our reach is farther than our grasp - and we should aim high.
If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a teacher, a history teacher. After all, teaching is very much like performing. A teacher is an actor, in a way. It takes a great deal to get, and hold, a class.
I knew I was a manic depressive when I was 13 or 14, and I loved it. I always told people what I had, and I was always cresting on a manic wave. I used it, willingly and happily, and it was an extraordinary experience. When I got hit with the depressive side - Boom! - yes, it was horrible and unendurable, but that's part of the story.
I have more fun and more grand and glorious moments of my life than anyone I've never known. I know that some people call that manic-depress, and that other people call that being touched by God. I just call myself lucky.
