The moral case for individual initiative in a free economy holds that people have a God-given right to use their creativity to produce things that improve our lives.

Exploiting people's emotions of fear, envy and anxiety is not hope, it's not change, it's partisanship. We don't need partisanship. We don't need demagoguery, we need solutions.

We don’t want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency...

Big-government economics breeds crony capitalism. It's corrupt, anything but neutral, and a barrier to broad participation in prosperity.

A free economy and strong communities honor the dignity of every person, rewarding effort with justice, promoting upward mobility, and building solidarity among citizens.

Mr. Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other.

If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don't give me Ayn Rand.

And to this day, my Mom is my role model.

Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.

We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility.

We need to stop spending money we don't have.

A simple problem of arithmetic: there are far more ambitions than there are grand destinies available.

I don't think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.

Genius is childhood recalled at will.

The hope of a new politics does not lie in formulating a left-wing reply to the right-it lies in rejecting conventional political categories.

I am quite spiritual. I believed in the fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God.

I don't listen to nothing while I'm in the studio, because I don't want to be influenced by anybody else.

Writing does not cause misery. It is born of misery.

Of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and good ones make us into better people.

You're playing with Pandora's box. Sometimes it's better not to open it. Sometimes, it's better not to know.

It's a funny time, but I'm sure in any time you live in, you'd consider it funny because life is change and it'll just keep doing that. It's a matter of embracing it or not.