You learn more from the flops than from the hits.

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?

I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.

No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.

After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.

When you have faith in something a lot of other people believe then you a member of the church" said Ceas, "When you have faith in something nobody believes, then you a complete wacko

People need to make sure they have a good humor spark plug inside them that can be ignited at any moment when required.

Poor George [Bush], he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

The whole growing-up process seems to have eluded me

Trees are massacred, houses go up — faces, faces everywhere. Man is spreading. Man is the cancer of the earth.

I think there are people who's lives have been saved because of the study of the genome.

I did not say history was bunk. It was bunk to me . . I did not need it very bad.

A quiet conscience makes one so serene.

It is in these moments of tender and ridiculous nostalgia that I know something inside me is still broken.

I hope people start to look at their lives as the most powerful, creative act they will ever offer this world.