There are certain things I learned when I first started learning about acting to try and place the character physically and emotionally. And the way you place them emotionally is often with humor.

In prehistoric times mankind often had only two choices in crisis situations: fight or flee. In modern times humor offers us a third alternative fight flee - or laugh.

I am often the brunt of my own humor.

Through humor you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter no matter how painful your situation might be you can survive it.

Yes I do often write poems from the mind but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

I'm more than open to hope but I think men and women have a difficult time dealing with each other and often take the low road.

We use the word 'hope' perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary: 'I hope it's a nice day.' 'Hopefully you're doing well.' 'So how are things going along? Pretty good. Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so.'

The contrasts between what is spent today to educate a child in the poorest New York City neighborhoods where teacher salaries are often even lower than the city averages and spending levels in the wealthiest suburban areas are daunting challenges to any hope New Yorkers might retain that even semblances of fairness still prevail.

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular the most practical the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression modesty sex appeal simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

If I go into a sandwich shop or anywhere that features 'Today's specials' on a chalkboard more than 10 feet away I have to ask for a printed menu. I smile at people I don't know on the street and ignore those I do. When at home I often find myself grabbing my 'back-up' glasses to search for the better-loved pair I have left on top of my dresser.

It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home.

I often feel very guilty because of the time that I spend outside of my home and the little time that sometimes I have for my kids.

A man's home may seem to be his castle on the outside inside is more often his nursery.

Some men like a dull life - they like the routine of eating breakfast going to work coming home petting the dog watching TV kissing the kids and going to bed. Stay clear of it - it's often catching.

A smile abroad is often a scowl at home.

In human history the desire for revenge and the desire for loot have often been closely associated.

Throughout out history when people have looked for new ways to solve their problems and to uphold the principles of this nation many times they have turned to political parties. They have often turned to the Democratic Party.

He was what I often think is a dangerous thing for a statesman to be - a student of history and like most of those who study history he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.

Those who become mentally ill often have a history of chronic pain.

It's a huge challenge a huge responsibility. Bond is a huge iconic figure in movie history. These opportunities don't come along very often so I thought 'Why not?'

Jews have a special relationship to books and the Haggadah has been translated more widely and reprinted more often than any other Jewish book. It is not a work of history or philosophy not a prayer book user's manual timeline poem or palimpsest - and yet it is all these things.

From Jefferson to Jackson to Lincoln to FDR to Reagan every great president inspires enormous affection and enormous hostility. We'll all be much saner I think if we remember that history is full of surprises and things that seemed absolutely certain one day are often unimaginable the next.