Unifying Moment Quotes

Say what you want to say about the rest of his presidency, including his tone-deaf response to Katrina and a war waged in Iraq on false pretenses, Bush connected with Americans in the aftermath of 9/11 because he looked as frail and unforgiving as we felt.

September 11th was a moment when America had the sympathy of the world.

My dream in life is to write the one gag that makes everyone in the world laugh.

I was like everyone else when Obama was elected - optimistic.

The remarkable thing about 9/11 was that journalism pretty much put down its badges. People didn't worry about reacting as human beings. People who weren't reporters reported. David Letterman was sort of a brilliant reporter for a second - but it was a way nobody had ever covered a story. They just presented what was inside themselves.

With the perspective afforded by the passage of time, where does 9/11 rank as a turning point in our national history? For the victims and their families, innocents going about their lives, suddenly and brutally murdered, no other day can ever matter as much.

Oklahoma City, Katrina... those happened to other unfortunate people. But 9/11, that happened to us all. And that was pretty much the genesis of 'Reign Over Me.'

Whether it was the 9/11 attacks, Paris shooting, or the attack on the Taj, people across the world mourn the collective loss.

Something happens to us all when we experience something as a unit that doesn't occur when we're on our couches or holding our little portable DVD players.

When the lights go down, that's 30,000 peoples lives colliding. Everyone there working is working for that moment, everyone watching is watching for that moment. It's when you're all in agreement about what you're all doing so it's a wonderful feeling of togetherness and possibility.

Can you think of a single situation, no matter how grave, where the atmosphere would not be instantly shattered with a loud fart - or a drawing of a butt? There is no faster way to create universal common ground.

Initially, the horrific images of September 11th triggered an enormous wave of solidarity.

The country has sorted itself ideologically into the two political parties, and those partisan attachments have hardened in recent years. It will take an extraordinary event and act of leadership to break this partisan divide. I thought 9/11 might provide such an opportunity, but it was not seized.

We weren't selling anything. We were just having a good time. And that feeling - there are people who say, 'I wish my kids, I wish my generation, had a chance to see it.'

When I look at the world, I recognize that unfortunately, it sometimes takes an atrocity like 9/11 to force us to come together.

The theatrical experience is also a communal one. When people saw 'Fruitvale' in the theater, there was not a dry eye at the end of the movie, and you would look to your neighbor and have this shared moment together that had a real weight behind it.

I think of events like the Challenger and 9/11 - events that move us so much that we never quite get over them. So it's important to go back and relive those feelings in order to remember how important those events were to us.

I'm a New Yorker. I was there during 9/11 and I saw how, not only New York City stopped for a moment, we all took an inhale and exhale at the same time - the world united at that time, and it changed my life.

The first ascent of Everest came at a time when humanity needed relief from two world wars. It was a unifying and inspiring event, signifying the drive to reach our greatest potential.

The spirit of Dunkirk is something everyone grew up learning about. After Dunkirk, everyone came together and it set the tone in the U.K.

Every year we discuss Jackie Robinson Day, which is April 15. We talk about it throughout baseball, promote it throughout baseball.

It has been the most extraordinary occasion, the most comprehensive and controlled display of public grief I am ever likely to witness.

It's just so weird when an entire nation knows what you are going through.

I'm not a really religious person, but those moments onstage feel like some sort of religious experience because no one holds back, especially 'Stay With Me' when I finish the show. It kind of turns into an anthem when I perform it live, and it feels like there's a lot of love in the room.

To this day, I continuously get social media people tweeting doing 'Glorious Bombs' from all over the world. You have little kids doing them. You have moms doing them who have no idea what they're doing, but they're doing it. It's become one of those entertaining things.