I think the Church is a conduit to God. The Church is not God. And I think that from the very beginning Jesus taught us that.
Martin SheenMy recovery is the single greatest accomplishment of my life. Without that, the rest of my life would have fallen apart.
Martin SheenOn the show, we are not trying to get people to eat their vegetables; we are not trying to get people to become Democrats. We are basically trying to encourage people to get involved with public life so that politics isn't left to the wealthy and privileged.
Martin SheenAaron Sorkin very sticky about using precise language. It's in his contract: you have to use what he writes!
Martin SheenI was the last one to join the cast of the west Wing and when I started it was just a peripheral character - the focus was to be on the staff, not the First Family. When I did the pilot, my contract was for just three years and it was confined to maybe three or four episodes every season. The only restraint I had was that I could not play another President while the show was on the air. So, I kind of backed into one of the great events of my life and certainly my career.
Martin SheenPeople, although having their own cross to carry, can minister to others through their own pain.
Martin SheenWe have to fight for something. It has to cost us. Our lives, our faith, have to cost us something; otherwise we're left to question its value.
Martin SheenChildhood hunger in America is as much a paradox as it is a tragedy. Why, in the wealthiest country in the world, should hunger darken the lives and dreams of 12 million children and their families? I believe that, when Americans learn the facts and understand how their involvement can make a difference, banishing childhood hunger will be a national, local and personal priority.
Martin SheenI honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government. I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it.
Martin SheenI think I'm known as a liberal democrat and Hispanic and a practicing Catholic, but I never really went out of my way specifically to play a president or any kind of leader.
Martin SheenI don't have any conscious memory of wanting to be an actor, but early on, there was something in my makeup that I felt comfortable with. Then when I was around five or six, I started going to the movies and gradually it dawned on me that I was like one of those people on the screen. And that was it. There was never any question or doubt about what I was going to do for a living.
Martin SheenI think [Bush] would like to hand his father Saddam Hussein's head and win his approval for what happened after the Gulf War.
Martin SheenNo father could ever be prouder of his son. I hold Charlie's accomplishments dearer than my own. He has been through so much and overcome so much more. Even if he weren't my son he'd still be my best friend.
Martin SheenThe first world is going to have to account for this sort of horrible poverty in our midst. We have to, first of all, become aware of it. We have to take responsibility for it. And then we have to do something about it for our own freedom, for our own salvation, for our own humanity.
Martin SheenYou are equally responsible for your place in the culture, and you must make a contribution, and you must accept responsibility for what goes down on your watch. You have no excuse if you are a conservative not to be concerned about the environment. You are equally responsible.
Martin SheenI love The West Wing for many reasons. The show has been a fantasy. But we have offered a parallel universe to reality.
Martin SheenWe think of violence as being conflict and fighting and wars and so forth, but the most ongoing horrific measure of violence is in the horrible poverty of the Third World... and the poverty in the United States as well. We have our own Third World here. And we have to first become aware of that and how to help and solve that.
Martin Sheen