I see the face of a child. He lives in a great city. He is black. Or he is white. He is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None of that matters. What matters, he's an American child.
We need to make sure that we're not in a society that is unbalanced and unfair and where the richest Americans are taking advantage of everybody else.
The American school system's a little warped, so anyone can get a degree if they have a little money.
If you want to get wages up in America for middle income Americans, there's only one way I know how to do that in real terms... by having more businesses want to hire more people.
Americans spend more money on Botox, face lifts and tummy tucks than on the age-old scourges of polio, small pox and malaria.
The U.S. is supposed to be a nation of second chances, but for the 70 million Americans with a criminal record, we're not doing such a great job. Even among those whose crimes were nonviolent and committed long ago, too many still bear a scarlet letter.
I'm far from immune to the American, perhaps historically male, prejudice toward practical and physical competence; I hope I've also considered that prejudice enough to have some distance from it.
American colleges are now increasingly reflexive in maintaining politically correct dialogue over controversy, and some say universities have lost sight of education's ultimate purpose.
The vast majority of Americans believe you don't discriminate. You don't. We honor each other. We don't all see life the same way. We don't. We're Americans.
We won't just automatically click our heels and follow the Americans.
Markets do not run better when manufacturing shifts to China largely because of the actions of its government. Nor do they become more efficient when Chinese companies are given special privileges in global markets, while American companies must struggle to compete with unfairly traded goods.
Seven-11 is the pulse-beat of America. I think that Bruce Springsteen should do a song about a 7-11 in Asbury Park, New Jersey, but write it in such a way that American's youth can identify and slurp along with the Boss. Hail the Boss! Hail 7-11!
Anyone who's gotten their passport in America will tell you, when you get it, it still says what country you were born in. So I remember getting my American passport. I was like, 'Woo-hoo! I'm going to travel.' And I opened it up. It said, 'Born in Iran.' I'm like, 'Oh, come on, man!'
People think of fortune cookies as being Chinese, but in essence, they are fundamentally American.
When I first heard Kraftwerk, I thought they were an American band singing in German.
The sitcom's traditional role has been to comfort the viewer who feels burdened by the unreality of American expectations.
I get 100 e-mails a day from Americans who say, 'What you're doing is cool - can we work for you?' From Germans, I also get 100 e-mails a day, saying, 'You fat pig!' or 'You're a liar and a criminal!' I'm trying to change this.
I don't watch 'American Idol' - that'd be like getting divorced from somebody and then hanging out with them.
Even the best community organizations and faith-based initiatives and the extraordinary charity of Americans across the country can't carry the brunt of eliminating poverty.
And the American public was able to make up their own mind whether this verdict was a just verdict or not. So I think there's a lot of value in the public being able to see how the system works or doesn't work, so I think there's a definite value there.
A lot of Americans don't have a passport, never will have a passport. Not only will they not travel, they don't want to travel.
American churches work very hard at reaching out to people to bring them in.
My ambition has always been to work with English and American actors and directors. Those were the movies that I was watching when I was growing up.
At the time of the Civil War, there were six democracies in the face of the planet. Today, there's 120 and they've been inspired by the American exceptionalism.
Sugar crystallizes something in our American soul. It is emblematic of all industrial processes. And of the idea of becoming white. White being equated with pure and 'true': it takes a lot of energy to turn brown things into white things. A lot of pressure.
There's been an increase in the number of Iraqis in training, but more Americans are dying and violence is increasing.
We should do what Obama and Romney won't do: Concentrate on Americans.
The French consider themselves the guardians of the world's culture and do not bother to hide the fact, which is annoying, but Paris is still where good Americans want to go when they die - and Brits, Russians, and Chinese as well, these days.
Obama is not an African American president, but a president of all Americans. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, Hispanic, he's the president of all races.
Stop exporting American jobs. Stop exporting American factories, and stop exporting American sovereignty and independence to global institutions like the World Trade Organization.
It's a philosophy that - 'We, the People' - it's about us, that if the Americans want to do something, they have the power to try to put leaders in place to carry out whatever their notions are.
The American story is a story of great moments and dreadful moments.
I know it's such a boring interview sometimes with us at 'American Horror Story', but I just can't say a word. I would certainly love to be back, that's for sure. It's such a great job.
Skyjackers had a pretty abysmal success rate - once you commandeered a plane in American airspace, your odds of a happy ending were slim. After the epidemic ended in 1973, what folks tended to remember most about the skyjackers was their futility.
What makes America special is that people come here, assimilate and become American with all of the rights and responsibilities citizenship bestows.
I think people feel threatened by homosexuality. The problem isn't about gay people, the problem is about the attitude towards gay people. People think that all gays are Hannibal Lecters. But gay people are sons and daughters, politicians and doctors, American heroes and daughters of American heroes.
