American Quotes

The American dream is not a sprint or even a marathon but a relay.

I think American television changed world television in its reinvention of the series.

While the banks got big bailouts, a sizeable chunk of African-American wealth evaporated because so many people lost homes.

African-American people adore President Obama.

Lots of African-American people really so adore Barack Obama that they're unwilling to even be mildly critical of him.

I don't know how many off the record conversations I've had with African-American leaders who would not be quoted and refused to make their sentiments public.

African-Americans have rarely been the beneficiaries of Presidential rhetorical excess.

New Jersey for me is so alive with history. It's old, dynamic, African-American, Latino.

The West, in the form of American capitalism, is seen as having won, but people are beginning to offer alternatives again, sometimes in retrograde ways like radical Islam.

If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy.

Our health-care issues is another big structural drag. All of these need to be dealt with if we're going to keep the American economy the most dynamic and flexible in the world.

Our competition for American business is no longer in the next county or the next state, it's around the world.

That is not respecting our democracy, using the State Department as a concierge for foreign donations, not really respecting our American democracy.

Barack Obama was not born into wealth or privilege, yet today his is president of these United States of America. Barack Obama has lived the American Dream. He has walked in our shoes.

I don't agree that you need an enormous number of American troops. Saddam's army is down to one-third than it was before, and I think it would be a cakewalk.

I like American history, so I was aware of the participants and a lot of it.

The great scandal of American life is that we pay for German levels of government without enjoying the related benefits.

When I walk in the door sometimes, I'm already an anomaly. Because I'm working in a genre that African-American's don't typically engage in.

The car was full of unhappy people heading west. It was the Great American Family Road Trip, all right. Whaaa-hoo!

If American Idol was the Olympics, I'd still get a medal. It was a great race.

The people that go on 'American Idol' do want some recognition and fame.

What I really hope for, ultimately, is that the closet will be a non-factor in American politics in a couple of decades.

I won’t react to something just because I’m supposed to, because I’m an African-American.

I wanted to honor [George Gershwin]. He's a great American songwriter.

Everybody knows that the dumbest people in any American university are in the education department, and English after that.

Michigan is very racially separated and the city of Detroit itself is 84 percent African-American and the surrounding suburbs are 86 percent White.

If Martin Luther King were here he'd be very surprised at some of the sugar-coated versions of American history presented today.

The African American community is so under-served in the entertainment industry.

I have a lot of African-American friends.

I don't think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We've got apple pie, jazz and musical theater.

There's nothing political about American literature.

No. But then the American Government--whatever branch--has never really grasped the concept of tribal identity.

My photography is often a sociological look at American culture and it's been very well published in the UK.

It would be easy to descend into despair, not only about the state of journalism, but the future of American democracy. But giving up is not an option. There is too much at stake.

Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'

Jimmy Carter is not loved in Israel, and yet no American president gave them a greater gift than Jimmy Carter gave them with peace with Egypt, and the opportunity to make peace with the Palestinians.

I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

I will always appreciate 'American Idol,' and I never forget about where I come from.

When I became a director, I wanted to convince a very reluctant Sidney into allowing me to go on the journey of his life. Sidney had gone ahead of every other African American actor.

America's all about the various voices, right? When we all speak with a common voice we verge on fascism, which is militaristic, and fundamentally anti-American.

Are things getting better with each generation? Yes. It's quite interesting to be living in these times, for me to witness an African-American being elected president. It's quite extraordinary.

I'm really happy about American Woman, it brought the Guess Who back. They started gigging again and got their song out on commercials.

Seeking the invisible through the imagery of the visible, the Americans never can get quite all the way to the end of the American dream.

...Venice has been the living future of contemporary American history since its inception.

American education is still the wonder of the world, and we must open the schoolhouse doors, not close them.

We don't have enough American troops inside of Iraq to destroy ISIL any time soon.

We use a Native American tradition of the talking stick. You sit and pass it around and whoever has the stick has to talk. Some people just hold it. Others really share.

I am an eighth Chinese, and I come from a large Chinese-American family in Los Angeles.

For an American president to be aiding America's enemy in developing nuclear weapons technology is unprecedented, absolutely.

I just got my work visa to shoot American Horror Story, and my official status is "alien with extraordinary abilities."