My parents were Orthodox Jews but not very regular Orthodox Jews. I was bar mitzvahed and all that. But God was hardly ever mentioned in my family. Franklin D. Roosevelt was.

I always wanted to be a lawyer,but I certainly never wanted to be a trapeze performer.

There is a seamless web to life.. all life is sacred.

I think Obama is possibly the most dangerous and destructive president we have ever had

A lot of people in the adult population have a very limited idea as to why they are Americans, why we have a First Amendment or a Bill of Rights.

Do not categorize about music. You take each musician at the time and open yourself to that musician.

I was introduced to jazz, and that's become a basic concern and passion of mine ever since.

The media ignores what is really going on.

I would bet there is no place in the United States where the First Amendment would survive intact.

What we have now in America is a surveillance society.

We live in the village. We have a summer place in Westport, Connecticut. We don't spend a lot on all kinds of things. But I have no complaints.

His thoughts inhabit a different plane from those of ordinary men

Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts

If there is such a thing as karma, let's hope that Sarah Palin comes back as a wolf being shot at from a plane.

Sometimes it happens that a man's circle of horizon becomes smaller and smaller, and as the radius approaches zero it concentrates on one point. And then that becomes his point of view.

Lazy poets try to elicit a reader's response with words designed to tug at the heart.

Ah, we have to be generous to be grateful ... One has oneself to be a giver.

When I first went to prison, I was even questioning where, God, where are you?

I want to make smart choices.

We should not confuse information with knowledge.