Like sugar and, oh - let's say the most tabloidy and gossipy reality television programs - credit is, for millions, genuinely addictive.

"More fun than a barrel of monkeys." Has anyone ever stopped to think how cranky, if not downright vicious, a barrelful of monkeys would be, especially once released from the barrel?

People of a certain age look back on the Mayberry of 'The Andy Griffith Show' and become almost as homesick for that simple fictional hamlet as they do for their own home towns.

A fellow with the inventiveness of Albert Einstein but with the attention span of Daffy Duck.

The fault is in our stars, dear Brutus: not the glass screen through which we see them.

Crime dramas will never go away as long as people turn to television for, among other things, reassurance and comfort.

Gimmicks come and go; the cop show seems one genre that will never leave - not as long as people like to sit at home in the suburbs and see what awful things go on in the cities.

In the 500-channel universe, which may, of course, contain many more channels than 500, the fun never stops - fun at such a fever pitch as to sometimes seem threatening, numbing, even agonizing.

Late-night television is like the cereal aisle in the supermarket: too many choices. Also, too many 'different' brands that really aren't different at all.

If the networks can get audiences to tolerate pop-up promos by the dozens, maybe they'll start selling pop-up commercials, too.

By a twist of fate rather than anything approaching journalistic enterprise, I did the last major interview with Johnny Carson.

Just as a star can’t be seen behind a cloud, you can never shine and be seen behind the clouding of your insecurities.

Every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned villain.

My bullshit metre is reading that as false'.

If I might share my opinion, this world is hell, and our task is to create our own heaven.

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.

We have to be continually reminded of what we believe.

I support strong sanctions and other penalties against those who aid violent extremists, brutalize their own people and have time and time again rejected calls to behave as responsible nations.

There are literally as many ideas as there are organisms.

Let us refuse to be silent! Speaking freely is a decisive step forward on the road to freedom.

Children should be given the chance to play instruments, to sing.