I wanted to write a big novel, something epic in scale.
Having courage does not mean that we are unafraid. Having courage and showing courage mean we face our fears. We are able to say, 'I have fallen, but I will get up. '
It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel, because they really don't think it will come back.
I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.
I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.
I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.
A leader sees greatness in other people. He nor she can be much of a leader if all she sees is herself.
When a politician bends the truth or a CEO breaks a promise, trust takes a beating.
Without undervaluing any other human agency, it may be safely affirmed that the Common School, improved and energized, as it can easily be, may become the most effective and benignant of all the forces of civilization. Two reasons sustain this position. In the first place, there is a universality in its operation, which can be affirmed of no other institution whatever. . . And, in the second place, the materials upon which it operates are so pliant and ductile as to be susceptible of assuming a greater variety of forms than any other earthly work of the Creator.
At the core of what I'm doing is a belief in the audience, a belief that populism doesn't mean dumbing down theater, but rather giving the audience a voice and a role in experiencing theater.
There is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secretly believes.