In Washington I'm thought of as a conservative, but in Tennessee I'm thought of as a Bolshevik.

What did the president know, and when did he know it?

It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble.

The most difficult thing in any negotiation, almost, is making sure that you strip it of the emotion and deal with the facts.

Demography is changing us as we are older societies, we're living longer. How the generations balance each other out, how that affects education and health care.

If you don't like the question that's asked, answer some other question.

Eventually, somebody is going to be a hero, and somebody's going to be president. Not necessarily the same person.

The beginning of the decline of the Republic was the day they air-conditioned the Capitol.

You've got to guard against speaking more clearly than you think.

Listen more often than you speak.

You don't ask what a dance means. You enjoy it. You don't ask what the world means. You enjoy it. You don't ask what you mean. You enjoy it.

On a fulcrum in my chest, grief and relief are balanced in equal measure.

Our technology forces us to live mythically

Reality is always different than words or a story sometimes it's better, many time not truthful.

Firefighters don't go on strike.

Characters who experience great trauma will sometimes create an escape.

Sudan is not really a country at all, but many. A composite layers, like a genetic fingerprint of memories that were once fluid, but have since crystallized out from the crucible of possibility

I've always believed in making films that you make the little decisions with your head, but you make the big decisions with your heart.

I love "30 Rock" because Tina Fey allows me to fly over the cuckoo nest once a week.

Thinking ... is a soundless dialogue, it is the weaving of patterns, it is a search for meaning. The activity of thought contributes to and shapes all that is specifically human.