From 1971 onwards the Memorial Day holiday was officially observed on the last Monday in May and became the unofficial start of the summer with barbecues blockbuster movie openings and mattress sales.

I am going to take something I learned over in Israel. Their Independence Day is preceded the 24 hours before with Memorial Day so it gives them a chance to serve and reflect and then celebrate. I am going to try to start that tradition here in America.

I started DJing breakdancing and MCing in the '70s and I got my record deal in 1979 with 'Christmas Rap.'

Yeah I started when I was 6 years old. My brother and sister would get all of these presents at Christmas time from the cast and crew of their show and I was jealous. So I decided that I had to become an actor.

South Park started as a little video Christmas card.

When I was eight years old I got a dummy for Christmas and started teaching myself. I got books and records and sat in front of the bathroom mirror practising. I did my first show in the third grade and just kept going there was no reason to quit.

It's fun when you start a movie because it's kind of like you get to go Christmas shopping... you get to make your wish list and you start thinking about what each character needs.

It is never too late to get into tennis! While I started playing at the age of 8 when my parents gave me a tennis racquet for Christmas tennis is a lifelong sport that can be enjoyed by people of almost any age. It's also something you never forget once you learn.

A friend gave me a CD of the 'Pathetique' Symphony as a Christmas present. I went home and I put on the CD expecting to listen to Tchaikovsky. But it started 'ta ta ta taaa.' It was too long for me. I didn't understand it at first but then I fell in love in love in love.

Black Friday is not another bad hair day in Wall Street. It's the term used by American retailers to describe the day after the Thanksgiving Holiday seen as the semi-official start of Christmas shopping season.

When you have kids you instantly feel that you do not want to do them wrong. Those dads that go off to Florida and start a new life I couldn't imagine that: seeing my kid once every Christmas every three years. If I'm gone for six days it feels like too much.

If you start to disrespect the character you're playing or play it too much for laughs that can work for a sketch it will sell some gags but it's all technique. It's like watching a juggler - you can be impressed by it but it's not going to touch you in any way.

At 35 I'm definitely starting to feel more like a grown-up than I ever have. There's nothing in my life that is childish or whimsical. Having fun is fantastic and I never want to lose a sense of that - and also I think you have to have that to put into your work or else it's going to feel stiff.

If you start by promising what you don't even have yet you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

Before you start some work always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions go ahead.

For me every day is a new thing. I approach each project with a new insecurity almost like the first project I ever did. And I get the sweats. I go in and start working I'm not sure where I'm going. If I knew where I was going I wouldn't do it.

When did women whose looks are not their living start conducting themselves like the simpering inmates of an Ottoman empire seraglio?

You know when you don't go on TV and talk about how many women you sleep with some people in Hollywood that are supposedly 'in the know ' start whispering that you're gay. If I were gay I wouldn't be ashamed to admit it but I'm not.

When I am cast in a movie where I feel that the woman's part is more interesting I usually start thinking about Spencer Tracy and Fred Astaire. They seem to be the most clear actors when working with women.

Companies like I.B.M. have offered women scholarships to study engineering for years and women engineers routinely get higher starting salaries than men.

In their 30s women really start to live... they're not children anymore and they're not just mothers.

Because I have work to care about it is possible that I may be less difficult to get along with than other women when the double chins start to form.

Ageism works in both directions. As a teenager in the public eye people would talk condescendingly to me. When you get older there's this feeling that you have to start carving up your face and body. Right now I'm in the middle ground - I think women in their thirties are taken seriously.

For any of us in this room today let's start out by admitting we're lucky. We don't live in the world our mothers lived in our grandmothers lived in where career choices for women were so limited.