Nothing drew me to the film business. I was propelled by the fear and anxiety of Vietnam. I had been drafted into the Marines. My brother was already serving in Vietnam. I bought if you will a stay of execution - both literally and figuratively - and went on to graduate school of business from the law school that I was attending.

The universal human laws - need love for the beloved fear hunger periodic exaltation the kindness that rises up naturally in the absence of hunger/fear/pain - are constant predictable reliable universal and are merely ornamented with the details of local culture.

Yet it ought to be obvious that good music generally occupies a higher plane that mere politics. Great writers can express moods through melody and capture experiences we share most powerfully - love lust longing joy rage fear triumph yearning and confusion.

My dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. As a young brother who grows up in a white context brilliant African father he's always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He has a certain rootlessness a deracination.

My main concern with the condition of mathematics in high school is that there's a lot of fear involved! Math is not generally speaking presented in a fun way. The concepts as I see them are fun and that's the way I'd like to convey them myself.

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are the more they are frightened.

The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.

These days there are a lot of people who just want to be famous. I think that comes from a naive place because those people generally don't know what it's like.

We had such a wonderful set of circumstances in Wilmington. Yes the four of us became famous literally overnight but we were in a small town and we always knew when people were coming down. We always knew when to behave.

The famous saying 'God is love' it is generally assumed means that God is like our immediate emotional indulgence not that the meaning of love ought to have something of the 'otherness' and terror of God.