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.

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

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

Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.

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

I refuse to do shows that are narrowly constructed, that appeal to only one sentiment. I do a lot of Jewish material in front of non-Jews and a lot of non-Jewish material in front of Jews on the simple theory that the non-Jews are entitled to a glimpse of a Jewish world and the Jews are entitled to a glimpse of the world.

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