If I were beginning my career today I don't think I would take the same direction. Television is at a crossroads at the moment. And although I am not up to date technologically I suspect that somewhere out there people are conveying things about natural history by means other than television and I think if I were beginning today I'd be there.

Natural history is not about producing fables.

The truth is of course that history is not completed in modern commerce any more than philosophy is perfected in political economy. In other words there is nothing timeless or God-given about filling stations and penicillin and plastic bags.

There's a lot of revisionist history that goes on these days about Iraq.

Part of the problem is voters know relatively little about Romney. And some of what they know about him complicates his task: Romney has a history of flip-flopping on issues he's extraordinarily wealthy and he can be tone-deaf about what moves voters. He just doesn't seem comfortable in his skin.

Yes they broke the law but we can't deport them. Let's get over this pointing fingers and do something about that whether it - they have to pay a fine learn to speak English the history you can do that. And then you have to give visas for the skills we need.

Young women today often have very little appreciation for the real battles that took place to get women where they are today in this country. I don't know how much history young women today know about those battles.

I learned more from my mother than from all the art historians and curators who have informed me about technical aspects of art history and art appreciation over the years.

What people forget is that the most radical thing about Obama is that he was the first black man in history to imagine that he could become president who was able to make other Americans believe it as well. Other than that he is a centrist just like I try to be. He's been bridging divisions his whole life.

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system.

Our liberal New York/Washington-based media would never in a million years put Liberal Godfather Ted Kennedy on the spot about his clan's bad behavior to whose lurid history he himself has contributed so much.

But when one believes that you've been appointed by God for a particular mission in history you have to be very careful about that how you speak about that. Where is the self-reflection in that? Where is the humility in that?

I think people in general have neglected to learn about history.

I don't have incredible knowledge about films or of filmmaking history I'm not that kind of person.

I learned much more about acting from philosophy courses psychology courses history and anthropology than I ever learned in acting class.

It's very attractive to people to be a victim. Instead of having to think out the whole situation about history and your group and what you are doing... if you begin from the point of view of being a victim you've got it half-made. I mean intellectually.

I think documentaries are the greatest way to educate an entire generation that doesn't often look back to learn anything about the history that provided a safe haven for so many of us today.

If our history can challenge the next wave of musicians to keep moving and changing to keep spiritually hungry and horny that's what it's all about.

In known history nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way.

Let's be very honest about what this is about. It's not about bashing Democrats it's not about taxes they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about they don't know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.

A lot of young players don't really know much about the history of the game and a lot of them are missing out on what the game is all about especially the whole concept of sportsmanship and teamwork.

No humorist is under any obligation to provide answers and probably if you were to delve into the literary history of humour it's probably all about not providing answers because the humorist essentially says: this is the way things are.

The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.

American history is longer larger more various more beautiful and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.