Like a layer on a pearl, you can't specifically identify the irritant, the moment of the irritant, but at the end of the day, you know you have a pearl.

World War II is smothered in sentimentality and nostalgia. What's interesting about Vietnam is that sentimentality is just not there, so you're given kind of a clean access to it in one way. It's also a war that represents a failure for the United States. Many people came back feeling like they never wanted to talk about it again. And so we developed a national amnesia.

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts.

People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story".

History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.

Like a layer on a pearl, you can't specifically identify the irritant, the moment of the irritant, but at the end of the day, you know you have a pearl.

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?