It's exciting to work with the kids so devoid of irony, so unguarded. And also terrifying

You try to hold on to some notions you might have had before, that this will somehow work out, this is a spell that will lift or be broken.

Civilizations rise and fall on confidence. America had figured out a way to borrow money to manufacture it.

For any thinking person, it (perpetual happiness) is untenable. If you're a thinking person, your upbeat sometimes, said sometimes.

If you write something the White House doesn't like, they take you in and say, 'If you ever write something like you did today, nobody from the White House will ever talk to you again

Confidence is the public face of competence.

I think that there's a lot of anxiety out there in people wanting their children to be part of the mainstream, to achieve based on the well-worn yardsticks.