But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for.

I mean there's enormous pressures to harmonize freedom of speech legislation and transparency legislation around the world - within the E.U. between China and the United States. Which way is it going to go? It's hard to see.

There's a hell of a lot of freedom in this rock and roll circus... it's where all the freaks go - it's the environment for me.

China has not established the rule of law and if there is a power above the law there is no social justice. Everybody can be subjected to harm. I'm just a citizen: my life is equal in value to any other. But I'm thankful that when I lost my freedom so many people shared feelings and put such touching effort into helping me.

Widespread state control over art and culture has left no room for freedom of expression in the country. For more than 60 years anyone with a dissenting opinion has been suppressed. Chinese art is merely a product: it avoids any meaningful engagement. There is no larger context. Its only purpose is to charm viewers with its ambiguity.

There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces and that cure is freedom.

I suppose there's a melancholy tone at the back of the American mind a sense of something lost. And it's the lost world of Thomas Jefferson. It is the lost sense of innocence that we could live with a very minimal state with a vast sense of space in which to work out freedom.

There's a freedom to being young that is harder to come by as time goes on.

As a boy I believed freedom for America meant freedom for me. There was a time I believed every word spoken.

I really care about this stuff I care about movies and you just have to be strong and don't be stupid freedom of choice is a big responsibility and I'm lucky enough not to have to just take any movie to pay the rent so there's no need to be greedy.

The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether it's Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation the expansion of women's rights or now gay rights I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties.

I have more freedom when I write fiction but my memoirs have had a much stronger impact on my readers. Somehow the 'message ' even if I am not even aware that there is one is conveyed better in this form.

I am a passionate believer in freedom of speech. I would not support anything which would impinge on aggressive robust freedom of the British press but when things go wrong and there has been outright illegality there should be proper accountability.

Religious tolerance is something we should all practice however there have been more persecution and atrocities committed in the name of religion and religious freedom than anything else.

I think we recognize as Americans there are certain things that are just primary to the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy here and religious freedom is one of the most important things we as Americans cherish.

When I was teaching in the 1960s in Boston there was a great deal of hope in the air. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive Malcolm X was alive great great leaders were emerging from the southern freedom movement.

There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division rob you of your freedom and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation.