I do believe that not just the churches but strong communities, strong trade unions, strong families can make a difference in terms of producing persons much more virtuous than what one usually finds in a gangster culture.

Barack Obama has domesticated the left in such a way that we feel as if we have no alternative but him...I refuse to accept that.

You're trying to just leave the world a little better.

John Coltrane was an addict; Billie Holiday was an addict; Eugene O'Neill was an addict. What would America be without addicts and post-addicts who make such grand contributions to our society?

I was blessed to be part of a commercial, pushing for this energy bill, but we've been unsuccessful.

There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.

For me music is central, so when one's talking about poetry, for the most part Plato's talking primarily about words, where I talk about notes, I talk about tone, I talk about timbre, I talk about rhythms.