Suddenly the whole imagination of writing and editorial and newspaper and all these presumptions about who am I reading this and who else other people may be and all that it's so grimly brutal!

There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.

This is a generation weaned on Watergate and there is no presumption of innocence and no presumption of good intentions. Instead there is a presumption that without relentless scrutiny the government will misbehave.

I hear the way people talk about the children of famous people. They're not treated very well. The presumptions are usually quite awful. So I tried to establish myself with a couple of movies. After 'Juno' I thought: 'I think I've defined myself enough as my own director that I'd love to work with my father.'

Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties.

Somehow the greater the public opposition to the health care bill the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway. Their attitude shows Washington at its very worst - the presumption that they know best and they're going to get their way whether the American people like it or not.