Must we be put to shame by much smaller and poorer countries, by Ireland, France, Austria or Sweden, who have understood that a nation's support of its arts is a matter of both national pride and cultural survival?

When something is moving you get that intake of breath and that stillness from the audience.

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

I am filled with awe that filmmakers have the capacity to stir us and give us back a sense of wonder.

In my world, history comes down to language and art.

I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.

Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission.