We're a leader sure, but still a member of the global community. And that's true and important and when America acts like its worst self on the global stage is when we forget that.

The story of America is necessarily one of progress because if it's not than it's a stale story where we have not risen above Klansmen.

Nationality was - and is - far less a divide than age... because "everything is global, man!"

American films are the best films. This is a fact. Cinema is - along with Jazz - the great American art form. And cinema in a very real sense created the American identity that has been exported around the world.

Nietzsche said that everyone tells themselves the story of their life. That's true about countries, too. We're constantly telling ourselves the American story.

British films are all "room with a view and a staircase and a pond."

We're a leader sure, but still a member of the global community. And that's true and important and when America acts like its worst self on the global stage is when we forget that.