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" I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive. "

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" We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory. "

" I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go. "

" I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all. "

" Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know? "

" I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent. "

" The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before. "

" In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event. "

" It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.' "

" You can't expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them. "

" I am a Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong. "

" You learn more from the flops than from the hits. "

" But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist. "

" I don't speak out because I am an actor nor will I keep silent because I am an actor. I respect my profession, but it endows me with no special privileges; but it also does not limit me or muzzle me. I am a person and a citizen with the attendant responsibilities of voice and vote. "

" You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition. "

" We live in a world of guns, bombs and terror. To conquer hate seems a nigh-impossible task. "

" You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it. "

" I am first, and foremost, an actor. That's what I am. To me, a song is a mini-drama. My musical ability informs the actor as well because it gives me a sense of timing that non-musicians don't have. So, one hand washes the other. "

" By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul. "

" Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out. "

" All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice. "

" Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general. "

" Must we be put to shame by much smaller and poorer countries, by Ireland, France, Austria or Sweden, who have understood that a nation's support of its arts is a matter of both national pride and cultural survival? "

" I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew. "

" No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations. "

" Right up to the middle of this century all perceptions of the world around us were delivered via the bookshelf or the paper route. "

" What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine. "

" Throughout my life I have cared as deeply about the songs of all peoples as I have about the rights of all peoples. "

" Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission. "

" I refuse to do shows that are narrowly constructed, that appeal to only one sentiment. I do a lot of Jewish material in front of non-Jews and a lot of non-Jewish material in front of Jews on the simple theory that the non-Jews are entitled to a glimpse of a Jewish world and the Jews are entitled to a glimpse of the world. "

" You cannot please all of the people all of the time, and that is truer in the arts than anywhere else. "