“Academic freedom is being lost by a great many people who dare to challenge Darwinism. That’s a terrifying situation. That’s contrary to the principles of science.”

The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.

I’d say the main way people get into terrible financial trouble is just to spend too much money relative to their income, and that is an endemic problem in the United States of America, and that’s the kind of thing that should be taught about in schools.

I always assumed scientists were free to ask any question, pursue any line of inquiry without fear or reprisal.

When I seemed to be irritable or sad, my father would quote the learned Dr. Knight, and then say, ‘Just go to sleep.’ Like all smart aleck kids, I thought the advice was silly. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized just how smart Knight was.

I am so in love with just lying in bed listening to Mozart.

We are not supposed to be all equal. Let’s just forget that. We are supposed to have equal rights under law. If we do that, we have done enough.

My ‘thing’ is that I just lie in my immense bed and look out the window at the skyline over Virginia and the sky and the airplanes coming into Reagan. I really love doing that.

I think a snob would be a person who thinks he is entitled; he has good things in his life and is entitled to them.

If we are just specks of dust hit by lightning, if we have no spark of God in us, why not just take whatever we can and devil take the hindmost? I mean, we are fools not to do that if there is no right or wrong.

I don’t consider an actor a star if he’s paid $20 million and grimaces in front of the camera and has a stunt man stand in for him. They may be fine actors, but they’re not role models.

I’m out and about meeting people all day long. And I’m very friendly; I talk to just about everybody I meet.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it.

Yes, Americans can still get credit for cars and trucks and refrigerators, and those businesses are doing well. But just try to get a home loan now.

The people who did the collateralized mortgage obligations, sold them to pension funds, then sold them short, then bought credit default swap insurance on them, are just amazing. They are a law unto themselves.

It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated… it is finished when it surrenders.

If there are finer beings than German short hairs, I don’t know what they are. In their eyes is peace.

I genuinely try to make movies I’d want to go and see, movies that are a bit more challenging.

I didn’t get out of coaching to get back into it. This is my next challenge and I’m planning to work hard at it.

There is a tendency at every important but difficult crossroad to pretend that it’s not really there.

Consistent effort is a consistent challenge.

Then the challenge is, once you left brain it and build it, then when you’re on stage you have to know it so well that you can get lost in it. I don’t want to be onstage looking like a robot,

God knew we would make mistakes. Life is all about mistakes. It is constant change and growth. Our greatest challenges in life will one day be known to us as our greatest teachers.

One of the most important disciplines in journalism is to challenge your working premises.

You have a challenge; never quit!