The American idea is as promising imaginative and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier the ability to make a new future with your own bare hands.

The words spoken by the leader of the free world can expand the frontiers of freedom or shrink them. When Ronald Reagan called on Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall ' a surge of confidence rose that would ultimately breach the bounds of the evil empire.

I grew up in a food-obsessed Italian family so food was always front and center in my life. I was a food obsessed person who morphed into a comedian and tried to figure out a way to make fun of my cake and eat it too.

I am but one member of a vast team made up of many organizations officials thousands of scientists and millions of farmers - mostly small and humble - who for many years have been fighting a quiet oftentimes losing war on the food production front.

We don't really go in for big family dinners but Scottish people are famously confrontational. It's a cultural thing so maybe we don't need to have them to clear the air. Also traditional family food isn't as nice here so there's no payoff for traveling hundreds of miles.

Give your kids a bloody knife and fork and let me put some fresh food in front of them they can eat.

The wonderful thing about Food for Thought is that it lets you keep your hand in theater and be in front of a live audience without a commitment of six months or even three months.

I would say stay the hell away from the party scene. Anything you put in front of your goal and especially something like that whether it's too much gambling too much food too much cold beers on the weekend - anything that you put in front of the prize is going to end up getting in the way and hurting you in the end.

When I go to a restaurant I eat three-quarters of the food in front of me. That cuts my calorie intake by 25 percent.

You go to a show and there's no food at all so if you're doing shows back to back you can forget eating. I remember standing up in the bath one day and there was a mirror in front of me and I was so thin! I hated it. I never liked being that skinny.

They both go together you can't be in front of the camera hosting a fitness television show in front of 75 million households and not have trained 6 days per week year round - in a bikini no less.

One of the most gratifying things I get as an artist is when people watch me do these different demonstrations and they in some way feel empowered by what I'm doing so they can confront their own fears. Maybe it's the fear of getting in an elevator maybe it's the fear of going on a plane and seeing the world.

Worry does not mean fear but readiness for the confrontation.

I'd gone from being this art student messing about with music to this girl with a record deal magazine front covers and all this hype. In many ways it was everything I ever wanted but when it happened all I felt was total paralysing fear.

Over the past few years the road to confrontation has shown its consequences: loss of innocent lives destruction and fear. Most costly however was the loss of hope. The most precious gift that you can present to your peoples over the coming weeks is renewed hope born out of tangible progress on the ground.

I had to confront my fears and master my every demonic thought about inferiority insecurity or the fear of being black young and gifted in this Western culture.

I have this fear of falling in front of large groups of people. That's why I tend not to wear heels.