They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.

My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.

You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'

It's hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.

You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history.

Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.