Peace has to be created in order to be maintained. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.

I think you can judge from somebody's actions a kind of a stability and sense of purpose perhaps created by strong religious roots. I mean there's a certain patience a certain discipline I think that religion helps you achieve.

Don't reward bad behavior. It is one of the first rules of parenting. During the financial cataclysm of 2008 we said it differently. When we bailed out banks that had created their own misfortune we called it a 'moral hazard ' because the bailout absolved the bank's bad acts and created an incentive for it to make the same bad loans again.

I often get letters quite frequently from people who say how they like the programmes a lot but I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature.

God created the world the laws of nature were created by God. True science tries to find out what God put in the world. The trouble is where scientists speculate about theology and they don't know what they're talking about because they weren't there. They can't speculate about the origins of life because they weren't there.

When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created.

It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created.

Awards were made in Hollywood in whatever the time it was created. They're to promote each other's movies. You give me an award I give you an award and people will believe that we are great movies and they'll go to see them. It's still the same.

Whether it's a 16-year old girl or a mom or a guy or anybody as long as they come up and they're excited to meet me 'cause they've had some sort of relationship with something I've created it's the coolest thing ever. It never gets old. It's awesome.

On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.