As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.

I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.

I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew.

Throughout my life I have cared as deeply about the songs of all peoples as I have about the rights of all peoples.

We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.