I for one would think both about how far we have come as a country and how much further we need to go to erase racism and discrimination from our society.

Something's happened in our society which I don't think is beneficial and that's that you see the public being fed box-office news. Newscasts now every local station - I've been traveling around the country a lot and you see the local news and they give box-office reports.

As I get older I think contrary to modern assumption but in line with the old Lerner and Lowe song that it would actually benefit both them and society if - to quote Professor Higgins - a woman could be more like a man.

A lot of guys and people in our society think that chicks just love dudes with money. Chicks love dudes who are successful who happen to have money - do you know what I mean? Chicks are attracted to dudes that are doing their own thing.

Since I have come to America I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don't think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come but while living in America I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside.

If you want a free society teach your children what oppression tastes like. Tell them how many miracles it takes to get from here to there. Above all encourage them to ask questions. Teach them to think for themselves.

I think being different going against the grain of society is the greatest thing in the world.

I am willing to compete on my merits and on my character - not with the color of my skin. We talk about being a color-blind society but I don't think the political process could actually handle that.

I don't think homosexuality is a choice. Society forces you to think it's a choice but in fact it's in one's nature. The choice is whether one expresses one's nature truthfully or spends the rest of one's life lying about it.

The truth is I think we are a self-less society not a selfish society. Because we're so busy now.

I don't think we live in a particularly equal society.

I think we need to just be very clear about what we're trying to do in Afghanistan. Frankly we're not trying to create the perfect democracy. We're never going to create some ideal society. We are simply there for our own national security.

No one has done a study on this as far as I can tell but I think Facebook might be the first place where a large number of people have come out. We didn't create that - society was generally ready for that. I think this is just part of the general trend that we talked about about society being more open and I think that's good.

But if you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of their own I don't think you have a heart. We need to be educating these children because they will become a drag on our society.

I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.

I have to admit that when I watch a movie in which there is no moral context for the violence - I find that offensive. I think that's potentially damaging to society.

Companies to date have often used the excuse that they are only beholden to their shareholders but we need shareholders to think of themselves as stakeholders in the well being of society as well.

In a society that tries to standardize thinking individuality is not highly prized.

Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.

A brain is a society of very small simple modules that cannot be said to be thinking that are not smart in themselves. But when you have a network of them together out of that arises a kind of smartness.

What you're seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they're directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.

The little things I can obey. But the big things - how we think what we value - those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone - or any society - determine those for you.

Before I do anything I think well what hasn't been seen. Sometimes that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that's really worthwhile.

Well first of all tell me is there some society you know of that doesn't run on greed? You think Russia doesn't run on greed? You think China doesn't run on greed? What is greed?