The effect of capitalism is to steer human selfishness so that, through the invisible hand of competition, the energies of the capitalist produce the abundance from which the whole society benefits.

Barack Obama's policies can be summarized as omnipotence at home, impotence abroad. So, the federal government is expanding its powers at home over the private sector and over the lives of ordinary citizens. Abroad, Obama's working to undermine America's influence and power. If someone is trying to shrink America's influence, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to do it by doing nothing. You can also be vigorous like Obama who has been very active to achieve what has really been his consistent objective.

What I've realized is that a film operates both on the intellectual and emotional levels, and if you can find a way to tell a riveting story and draw ideas out of that, it's very powerful.

America is simultaneously the most attractive and most repulsive place on the planet. It is most loved and most hated.

I really want to move to a country where the poor people are fat.

Well, the taxes that everyone else is paying are supporting lots of programs that were in place prior to Barack Obama's new spending. So new spending has too be paid for by new taxes, or by eliminating existing tax breaks. And Obama wants that burden to be borne exclusively by the rich.

I do think American culture has shifted a little bit away from the contemplative more toward the visual, more toward the emotional, and more toward the expressive. I don't think there's a lot that can be done about that. We just have to understand that it's the product of technology and of the way people live now.