You work on things and you have such faith in them while you're making them that everything feels special - in a way.

True fans of the Constitution like true fans of the national pastime acknowledge the critical role of human judgment in making tough calls. We don't expect flawless interpretation. We expect good faith. We demand honesty.

Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature the texts our first attempt at cosmology making sense of where we are in the universe our first attempt at health care believing in faith healing our first attempt at philosophy.

Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in.

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.

Failure is good. It's fertilizer. Everything I've learned about coaching I've learned from making mistakes.

I'm living life as best I can - but I'm not exempt from failure and making bad choices.

I mean I love L.A. - I love living here. But I wish that we could make things without the need to hit a home run every single time. It's a unique thing to Hollywood that if you don't do that every time then you're considered a failure. But it's like 'Well are you making movies to be successful? Or are you making movies to learn something?'

You will be a failure until you impress the subconscious with the conviction you are a success. This is done by making an affirmation which 'clicks.'

I loved making Pure Country. It was a great learning experience for me seeing another part of the entertainment industry.

Also I knew that the impact of Motorcycle Diaries was going to be so resonant for all of us who went through the experience of making it that I didn't want to do anything that could reflect it.

I think women don't grow up with the harsh world of criticism that men grow up with we are more sensitively treated and when you first experience the world of film-making you have to develop a very tough skin.

Making movies is a very different experience in a lot of ways. It's difficult when you're used to owning the copyright and having a landlord's possessory rights - I rent my plays to the companies that do them and if I'm upset I can pull the play. But the only two directors I've worked with are pretty great.

I think newspapers shouldn't try to compete directly with the Web and should do what they can do better which may be long-form journalism and using photos and art and making connections with large-form graphics and really enhancing the tactile experience of paper.

Lord of the Rings was my first experience making movies and at the time I had no ideas how movies were done. I thought that's the way they're done so in a way I had nothing to compare it to.

Making an album should be an honest experience. It shouldn't be about trying to gauge where popular music is today it should be about artistic expression and putting down what you want to put down.

The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history like the grains of gold in the sand of a river and the knowledge of the past the record of truths revealed by experience is eminently practical as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.