RON SILVER

The twentieth century has exhibited a barbarism and lack of respect for human life on a massive scale just about unknown before.

Artists speak the truth to the public without fear of retribution or damage to their careers.

Acting is not about knowing all this stuff; it's about character.

I do believe all actors are smart.

I think it's good to meet smart people and talk.

I just don't get invited to the same dinner parties I used to like to go to.

Two, I actually learned a lot of things that served me very well when it came to repeating performances on stage, because it is a craft and you do need a technique for it.

But some actors I have met possess an intelligence that I can only dream of. It's about character, it's about behavior. They understand things about people that I simply don't see.

Nothing gets a bigger laugh than when you refer to things like ethics or human rights.

Nobody has a franchise on what is good.

Involvement in public affairs is a legitimate use of celebrity.

In Europe, people in the arts are considered part of the intelligentsia; they are considered part of the elite.

I don't even like to use the word relationship. I don't know what it means.

Anyone who devotes time and attention to what makes people tick, to me, is a smart person.

I had no desire from an early age to be on the stage.

I was immature the way I handled the business. I saw myself as a tribune of the people.

Then I realized that to be really good at this requires a lot of energy and concentration and skill.

I think you have an obligation to be an optimist. Because if you're not, nothing will change.

If you don't think you want to go on a train and read the paper every day and work from nine to six at night, there was something about the uncertainty when I was younger which was very attractive.

I still think I'm going to do something else when I grow up.

I started getting jobs, and I thought it was going to be real easy.

It's not like I'm the most famous person in the world.

Too often in the past, U.S. leaders have forced Israel to pay the price for American strategic interests in the Middle East - through concessions in the peace process as well as passivity in the face of Iraqi attacks.

I saw and I met a lot of people who were in the field. It also provided a context in which I came to respect what the actor did, because I saw how difficult it actually was to do.

You have to think an awful lot about your motivations or people's behavioral intentions or what their body language can indicate or what's really going on or what makes people sometimes do, sometimes, the irrational things they do.