No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.

I am a Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong.

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

You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

No movement can afford to be caught in a time warp and exist in a state of suspended animation.

I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.