There can be no two opinions as to what a highbrow is. He is the man or woman of thoroughbred intelligence who rides his mind at a gallop across country in pursuit of an idea.

Science knows no country because knowledge belongs to humanity and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.

I love a lot of the New York bands but Patti Smith stands out. I just read 'Just Kids' and it's an inspirational well-written account of an emerging New York artist in the late seventies.

President Obama called for a 'we' nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that's what we need most in our country today.

You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple but nourishing to the imagination.

I think we're all a little afraid of the dark. If you lived in the country as I did there's nothing quite like country dark which was really black. And as a child your imagination runs wild.

I was brought up in a very open rural countryside in the middle of nowhere. There were no cell phones. If your lights went out you were lit by candlelight for a good four days before they can get to you. And so my imagination was crazy.

Shakespeare fascinated me. He hardly ever left the country. His imagination was worldwide though reading.

President Reagan was a leader at a time when the American people most needed leadership. He outlined a vision that captured the imagination of the free world a vision that toppled the Communist empire and freed countless millions.

Well I think that as a country we've drifted away from appreciating the importance of imagination.