Not only are most of our citizens fathomlessly ignorant of the glories of American literature, a fast-growing percentage of our students are no longer taught much about any works of American art, be they novels, paintings, symphonies or ballets.

If you're looking for light entertainment, you can't get much lighter than 'Bye Bye Birdie,' a flyweight farce about the coming of rock n' roll to small-town America.

I feel quite confident that audiences on both sides of the Atlantic are growing 'dumber,' if what you really mean to say is 'less culturally literate.'

I became a professional musician and played all kinds of music. I played bluegrass, I played classical music, and for many years, I played jazz.

I wake up every day, and the family fortune is on the line, and that's a good thing.

My wife is the boss at home, and my daughters are the bosses. I am just the worker. We are a very warm family and very happy.

What's important is that my family and I are all good.

I have been in dialogue with my family about what can actually be done. We've come up with this philosophy that in a truly multicultural society, the only way to have liberty and justice for everybody is to have multiple parties. And by multiple parties, I mean 50 parties, not one or two.