Future orientation is combined with a notion and expectation of progress, and nothing is impossible.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents.

Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations.

My academic identity is that of a folklorist, and for many years I have taught only folklore courses.

In my introductory course, Anthropology 160, the Forms of Folklore, I try to show the students what the major and minor genres of folklore are, and how they can be analyzed.

Americans often have trouble enjoying the present moment.

I mentioned that one of the tripartite formulas in American worldview involves time: past, present, and future.

Americans have a penchant for the future and tend to disregard the past.

Polls are frequently taken to try to tease out or determine likely directions and trends, but once taken, they belong to the past, requiring that new polls be taken.

Dance on the stage of life with love in your heart, a smile on your face, and a great vision in your mind.

Sometimes you have to go a little crazy before you can find sanity. I think I'm close.

I learned to swallow words back, hold secrets on my tongue until they dissolved like soap bubbles.

The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice their choice!

When you're playing a tough guy, all the other guys want to be tough right back at you and it amps them up.

Life is progressive, no matter what our intentions.

Monologues, in some ways, are the most scientific descriptions of consciousness and even of gatherings.

They're only words, unless they're true.

The salvation of the world ultimately lies in moving towards universal nuclear disarmament, but that's a long distance away.

All writing is in fact cut-ups. A collage of words read heard overheard. What else?