My dad was a musician, it was just what he did, like another guy's dad drives a meat truck. Our house was normal. We weren't taken with the fact our dad was a musician.
What makes most of us who we are most of all is not our minds and not our bodies and not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us.
When giant companies wanted more tax loopholes, Washington got it done. When huge energy companies wanted to tear up our environment, Washington got it done. When enormous Wall Street banks wanted new regulatory loopholes, Washington got it done. No gridlock there!
We did a student-initiated project of 'A Little Night Music', which was the first time that all of the divisions - music, dance, drama, opera - came together and put on a piece. It was a black box kind of feel. We had to get costumes that were pieced together. We had our own lighting that we finagled.
In 'National Geographic,' you always saw pictures of tribal Africa. And here I am, sitting in Nairobi in our suburban house, watching TV and thinking, 'Why is it always going to be these tribal people 'that are the ambassadors of our image?
The police who did our training said 'Happy Valley' is one of the only police programmes they can watch and not burst out laughing, saying, 'As if you'd do that.' They think it's really authentic.
Sometimes we make films just for our people, and it doesn't reach to anyone.
I played the piano as a boy for six years, from the time I was six to 12 years old. My piano lessons ended when my father died because our family had no more money. I used to have a mestiza teacher. She'd come once a week to teach me piano lessons, and she'd bribe me each time with an apple; otherwise, I wouldn't play.
We're the only major company in the U.S. that is solely in the professional beauty industry. We promised hairdressers when we started that we would stay with them. If I went retail tomorrow then we would be four times our size overnight, but I'm going to be the one guy who kept his word.
As I review the great history of our nation, community organizers have been at the center of so many of our great social movements.
Our cellar home had a kitchen and a combination bedroom and half bath, which meant we had a sink next to the bed. We had no refrigerator, no shower or tub, and no privacy. My parents shared the bedroom with my sister and me.
We have a battle over the fundamentals of our country.
There are so many secrets in our world.
I work in our living room, a strange room in a strange, topsy-turvy house. I work underneath this enormous bookshelf.
The Palestinian Arabs will have their autonomy, we will have our security. We shall live together.
I'm Irish and always will be, but America has taught me so much. Maybe it's here in the U.S. that we find a healing, for in the broader melting pot we get to look at some of these self-destructive attributes that we bring to bear upon our own quarrels and begin to solve them in ways other than just splitting apart.
I believe in fairy tales. They are the basis of all our performance of storytelling and film-making - when we twist the real events of the world into something that offers us hope - and I believe in that.
Science shows us truth and beauty and fills each day with a fresh wonder of the exquisite order which governs our world.
While President Obama shirks his responsibility to advance solutions to our fiscal challenges, he can no longer hide from the merciless math of the balance sheet. Conservatives have made certain of that.
Our skin is very thin. It doesn't take much for us to jump off a ledge or to kill one another. It can happen very, very quickly.
It's great to wave the flag - I always say we're proud to be made in America - but I think our distinction is we make it well in America.
Since it is one of the great attributes of our species to be susceptible of improvement and capable of experiencing the most beneficial changes, for this reason what are vulgarly called 'venerable establishments' will often range themselves in opposition to the best interests of the community.
Our flag is our identity, and we can't disrespect or let anyone else disrespect our identity.
We love Popsicle in our house. Nick could probably down a whole box in one sitting; he's obsessed with the sugar free box, and I'm just obsessed with the classic.
Why can't women get along? Because we're afraid. We're afraid to be vulnerable. We're afraid to be soft. We're afraid to be hurt. But most of all, we're afraid of our power. So we become controlling and aggressive and vicious.
My body is damaged from music in two ways. I have a red irritation in my stomach. It's psychosomatic, caused by all the anger and the screaming. I have scoliosis, where the curvature of your spine is bent, and the weight of my guitar has made it worse. I'm always in pain, and that adds to the anger in our music.
We must make choices that are outside of the familial expectations of us, or we'll just be repeating the mistakes. Our parents came here to give us better choices.
The amount of U.S. debt held by countries such as China and Japan is at a historic high, with foreign investors holding half of America's publicly held debt. This dependence raises the specter that other nations will be able to influence our policies in ways antithetical to American interests.
The World Cup must remain the number one competition, because it is our only source of money and, with that money, we can develop football in the whole world.
Not everybody in the world who is an opponent of our opponent is necessarily going to be a friend of ours.
Our communities are being destroyed by racial tension - and we're too polite to talk about it.
The better-informed we are, the more we can do to make sure what's happening is in our interests and is accountable to us.
How we move forward with a level of R&D support that will be meaningful allows us to really build on and enhance our energy opportunities in this country.
We shall all die, and our lives will be irrelevant then.
I have always said that human beings are multidimensional beings. Their happiness comes from many sources, not, as our current economic framework assumes, just from making money.
No, we don't own our children. Our parental privilege is to love them, to lead them, and to let them go.