Most presidents come to Washington bright as freshly minted dimes and leave much diminished.

Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.

Some parents say it is toy guns that make boys warlike. But give a boy a rubber duck and he will seize its neck like the butt of a pistol and shout 'Bang!'

Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses.

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

Ronald Reagan has held the two most demeaning jobs in the country; President of the United States and radio broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs.

The unpleasant sound Bush is emitting as he traipses from one conservative gathering to another is a thin, tinny "arf" - the sound of a lap dog.

Sports is a moral undertaking because it requires of participants, and it schools spectators in the appreciation of, noble things - courage, grace under pressure, sportsmanship.

A politician's words reveal less about what he thinks about his subject than what he thinks about his audience.

A society that thinks the choice between ways of living is just a choice between equally eligible 'lifestyles' turns universities into academic cafeterias offering junk food for the mind.

Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics.

Great. I'd been dumped in Hell's waiting room.

Tombstones don´t list jobs, they list relationships-mother, wife, daughter.

I don't trust words. I trust actions

To earn respect, you must earn your own self respect before you can expect others, to respect you.

You cannot play the piano well unless you are singing within you.

Isn't it odd how the little things can change a man's entire life?

The maimings of love are endlessly funny.

I want to have some effect on the way the world works in whatever way I can, and I also want to have the power to help get the movies that I think are important made.

Buying is a profound pleasure.

You've got to have a sense of different audiences. I'm a kind of performer manque - I come from a long line of failed actors!