The film's title You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. comes from something I used to say in teaching my students "This is not going to be a neutral class." The world is already moving in certain directions and wars are going on and children are going hungry. Terrible things are happening. And so to be neutral in a situation like this is to collaborate with whatever is going on. And I don't want to collaborate with the world as it is. I want to intrude myself. I want to participate in changing the direction of things. So that's the origin of the title.

The future is an infinite succession of presents.

Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.

Why do we have to be a military superpower? Why can't we be a humanitarian superpower?

Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country [America], for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home. It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria.

The fact that war belongs to the past, does not mean it has to be part of the future.

One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.