As a kid I was enamored with fiction, most of it utterly forgettable and long forgotten.

We are squandering our wealth. In many respects, to the extent that we persist in our imperial delusions, we're also going to squander our freedom...

Sometimes, when you can't fix the problem on your own, you need to make some compromises and find the partners who can get the job done for you.

Ideology makes people stupid.

It's not so much the amount of tax we pay - it's the sense that our pocket's being picked without our knowing what's going on.

If any overarching conclusion emerges from the Afghan and Iraq Wars (and from their Israeli equivalents), it's this: victory is a chimera.

Rejection would be a disaster for the U.S., but ratification alone will not end our problems in Iraq. Even if the constitution is ratified, the insurgents are not going to lay down their arms.

You have a drawer full of dull butter knives and an old pair of kitchen shears. You are hardly armed to the teeth.

Never turn down a job because you think it's too small you never know where it may lead.

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.

Ever since the romantic comedy-drama 'She's Gotta Have It' antagonized black women and black men in 1986, Spike Lee's films have enjoyed the outrage of various groups.

My motto is, if it isn't beneficial it isn't necessary. So, if it doesn't benefit me why am I even considering this bullshit?

But I like being nasty. I like being cranky. Especially if it's a cold day in Chicago, it's nice to just take it out on Kyle, because he's so easy to scream at, you know?

Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.

The unprepared speaker has a right to be afraid.

I would love to go back and travel the road not taken, if I knew at the end of it I'd find the same set of grandkids.

There aren't many strong or charismatic candidates today, because many people can't withstand the scrutiny.