We're at the crossroads. Down one road is a European centralized bureaucratic socialist welfare system in which politicians and bureaucrats define the future. Down the other road is a proud solid reaffirmation of American exceptionalism.

If we have to use force it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.

We have a close unshakable bond between the United States and Israel and between the American and Israeli people. We share common values and a commitment to a democratic future for the world and we are both committed to a two-state solution. But that doesn't mean that we're going to agree.

Internationally President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy. He believes America's role as leader in the world is a thing of the past. I believe a strong America must - and will - lead the future.

The American people I talk to don't spend every moment thinking 'How can I tax my neighbor more than they're being taxed?' They say 'How can I get a good job? How can my kids get good jobs? How can seniors have a confidence in their future when they know that Social Security Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt?'

America is false to the past false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

While I take inspiration from the past like most Americans I live for the future.

I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint its wealth with our wisdom its power with our purpose.

I don't write literary fiction - I write books that are entertaining but are also I hope well-constructed and thoughtful and funny and have things to say about men and women and families and children and life in America today.

The prospects for a coherent hilarious and consistent American comedy seem to lessen every year as the poor waterlogged gassy corpse called 'Evan Almighty' proved when it floated ashore recently. So there's a temptation to think too highly of Robin Williams's uneven but occasionally funny 'License to Wed.'

What I fell in love with as a child was 'My Fair Lady ' 'Funny Face ' 'American in Paris ' and 'Singin' in the Rain.' Just perfect movies to me and I was dancing. I started ballet when I was three. And I fell in love with those movies and fell in love with Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron.

And there's a visceral fun in watching Team America and making it like taking a puppet and throwing it against the wall. Because it's not CG there's something funny about it.

The American audience has really opened up to women being A.) funny and B.) kinda crude. 'Bridesmaids' is R-rated and I think it was a major coup for women to have an R-rated comedy that did really well. Same as 'Bad Teacher.'

When I first envisioned 'Funny Games' in the mid-1990s it was my intention to have an American audience watch the movie. It is a reaction to a certain American cinema its violence its naivety the way American cinema toys with human beings. In many American films violence is made consumable.

It's funny how people who ain't never been down there can think that America is so fair and that we should be alright. It's funny that the people who have their foot on our neck are telling us 'Get up. What's wrong with you?'

I'm a misplaced American but don't know where I was misplaced.

Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

People instantly assume you can't have a platonic friendship with someone of the opposite sex. I think this may be specific to L.A. - or America.

The part which American friendship played in helping us to win the freedom we enjoy in this part of Ireland has been gratefully recognized and acknowledged by our people.

Look I worked with American Republican presidents and Democratic presidents all of them and each of them has shown a deep and profound friendship to Israel you know? I can't remember anybody who was in that sense negative as far as Israel is concerned.

The fact is with every friendship you make and every bond of trust you establish you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world. That is so important. So when you study abroad you're actually helping to make America stronger.

We've got to understand that the whole nature of the way American democracy guards its freedom has been changed.

Now we understand much more clearly. why people from all over the world want to come to New York and to America. It's called freedom.