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.

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

You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.

But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.

I am first, and foremost, an actor. That's what I am. To me, a song is a mini-drama. My musical ability informs the actor as well because it gives me a sense of timing that non-musicians don't have. So, one hand washes the other.

Right up to the middle of this century all perceptions of the world around us were delivered via the bookshelf or the paper route.

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.