I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.
I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.
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.
No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.
No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.
Throughout my life I have cared as deeply about the songs of all peoples as I have about the rights of all peoples.
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.
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?
I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.
One might have thought the world would stop ascribing moral equivalence between acts of terrorism and acts of punishing terrorism. It has not happened that way.
I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.
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.
I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.
In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.
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.
I glory in the fact that a human being has multiple talents and exercises them all with a degree of integrity and artistic proficiency. That's what I do.
I don't speak out because I am an actor nor will I keep silent because I am an actor. I respect my profession, but it endows me with no special privileges; but it also does not limit me or muzzle me. I am a person and a citizen with the attendant responsibilities of voice and vote.
I am filled with awe that filmmakers have the capacity to stir us and give us back a sense of wonder.
We live in a world of guns, bombs and terror. To conquer hate seems a nigh-impossible task.
You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.
I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. To me it was meaningless. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sings about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing.
In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel's side and a serious obstacle to peace.
It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'
Retiring' - within that word is 'tiring,' and I'm not tired. I don't believe in retirement, really.
We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.
