On the environmental front there's concern about global warming and high levels of carbon dioxide and trees take in CO2 and store carbon.

I'd say that animal rights and environmental issues have always been at the forefront of my mind.

I don't think it's too hippie to want to clean up the planet so you don't wind up dying of some kind of cancer when you're 45 years old. It enrages me that these big cancer-research organizations can't be bothered to man the front lines of environmental protest.

The most meaningful engine of change powerful enough to confront corporate power may be not so much environmental quality as the economic development and growth associated with the effort to improve it.

I am going to confront the old-fashioned negative thinking which says that all government needs to do to generate growth is cut worker and environmental protections cut taxes on the rich and stroke 'fat cats' until they purr with pleasure. I'm completely repudiating the idea that government has to get out of the way.

Apartheid education rarely mentioned in the press or openly confronted even among once-progressive educators is alive and well and rapidly increasing now in the United States.

Abraham Lincoln comes from nothing has no education no money lives in the middle of nowhere on the frontier. And despite the fact that he suffers one tragedy and one setback after another through sheer force of will he becomes something extraordinary: not only the president but the person who almost single-handedly united the country.

One of the critical issues that we have to confront is illegal immigration because this is a multi-headed Hydra that affects our economy our health care our health care our education systems our national security and also our local criminality.

There are no dreams too large no innovation unimaginable and no frontiers beyond our reach.

After having done this whole slew of press for 'Big Love ' now I'll have anxiety dreams for like a week and a half about all the stupid things I said. I can't even imagine being in front of the cameras all the time. I had a weird dream the other night that I was on 'Jersey Shore.'

Ironically it is exactly because we are a city that embraces freedom that welcomes everyone and encourages their dreams that New York remains on the front lines in the war on terror.

It is exactly because we are a city that embraces freedom that welcomes everyone and encourages their dreams that New York remains on the front lines in the war on terror.

What is ironic is that Allen Ginsberg's importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to bring it to the front page. He electrified an entire world!

I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a society where you're trying not to look at it is stupid because looking at death throws us back into life with more vigour and energy. The fact that flowers don't last for ever makes them beautiful.

For those who live neither with religious consolations about death nor with a sense of death (or of anything else) as natural death is the obscene mystery the ultimate affront the thing that cannot be controlled. It can only be denied.

Dating is really hard because everyone puts on a front. It's really difficult to see who is who so it is important to be yourself.

Growing up I had a front row seat to seeing two people work really hard. My dad scrubbed toilets at a private Catholic school for a while and that was to help me get through school.

I used to be really nervous when I sang. Like when I was a kid starting young 18 and 19 and my dad really had to sort of push me to start singing in front of people. Ever since I got out there and really started doing it the only thing I've ever tried to do is just sort of is be myself you know never put on a voice. Sing naturally.

I always had a standard of back when I was doing the country music I always told people I would never record a song that I wouldn't sit down and sing in front of my mom and dad.

My dad told us up front 'Guys if you want to play sports go ahead but it's your decision.'

I'm the most inappropriate dad. I curse in front of my kids and their friends. I let my kids watch R-rated movies. I'll walk by the movie theater and say 'Let's go see that ' and my kids will say 'No it's rated R. It's not appropriate for kids.' I'm like Uncle Dad. We have fun. I don't live with them but I drive over four days a week.

It takes both courage and talent to stand up in front of fellow human beings and make them crack a smile and at the same time keep it clean.

I hope America can also be the cultural leader of the world and use this frontier spirit to lead and show others that we need courage to go places where we have not gone before.

Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.