Quotes About History

There have been linkages between the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda going back more or less a decade.

America is the big subject of the second half of the 20th century, tackled in one form or another by all the great American male writers. You could make a case for saying that it was the only game in town - from Bellow to Roth to Updike to Richard Ford - America was more or less explicitly the leitmotif.

Historically, more people have died of religion than cancer.

Never before in human history has more information been available to more people. But at the same time, never before in human history has more bad information been available to more people.

Most all of my awards are at the Country Music Hall of Fame. You know we had the longest running exhibit in the Hall of Fame history with Family Tradition. More people went to see Daddy's stuff and all the things I have collected over the years than any other exhibit.

That was a misconception among a lot of people - that Mormons are polygamist. No, they're not. I mean they obviously have that in their history, and there are some fundamentalists.

All Moroccans are justifiably proud of the development of democratic institutions in Morocco.

One of my best friends while shooting 'Roots' was Vic Morrow, the guy that whips Kunta.

'Pretty Deadly' is the story of these immortal and mortal characters, and the mortals' story follows Sarah's family, a black family, through the ages. I never made the choice of, 'Oh, this is gonna be the story of an African American family!'

I love the dancers in the Bolshoi, but all of my Moscow friends are outside the company. A friend introduced me to Vika Gazinskaya, a well-known Russian designer. I met her group. The rest is history.

Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.

Moses is our true founding father.

Israel changed my life. It is one of the most amazing countries that I have ever been to.

I'm from Raleigh, N.C. It's my home, the most beautiful place ever - but it has some racist history.

The most beautiful thing in Cambodia isn't the country - it's the Cambodian people.

Authenticity is the most important thing. You have to know where it all comes from, study who pioneered it.

Every country that's ever been the most powerful country in the world ceases to be the most powerful country in the world at some point.

Never to forget the Holocaust was not only against Jews. It was mostly against Jews but it was also against homosexuals, gypsies and, let's not forget, people with disability.

There is a certain kind of respect for authenticity today that there wasn't back in the days when they did 'Cleopatra,' where everything looked like a giant motel. People want to have it be authentic in the look, and authentic in the way people behave.

I made a crash landing here on Earth on February 14, 1962, in the Shreveport Catholic Charities Home for un-wed mothers. The infamous Bonnie and Clyde lost their lives just miles from where I was born. Like outlaws ourselves, my birth mother and I were on the run from the day she found out I was part of her.

I went to school with a lot of kids whose fathers and mothers were part of the El Paso black history.

To write our constitution is for the past, the present, and the future to come together all at once in one single motion, in one single heave, one single cry. For we correct the errors of the past and chart a new course for the future, based on the experience of the present.

My last days at MGM were like the fall of the Roman Empire in fast motion.

There's nothing self-serving about what motivated me to bring 'Schindler's List' to the screen.