Other people had strived for freedom and promise and ratatatata but the Constitution [of USA] was the first time we codified it aspirationally and wrote it down and put it up on a wall and said, "this is us." If your father was a cobbler, and his father was a cobbler, and his father was a cobbler, you don't have to be a cobbler.

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.

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.

I love the bullshit morning shows. They're so stupid but I love them.

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.

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."