Arts & Literature

The Smithsonian has always been able to rise above the political moment. I don’t see anything that stops that process.

You don’t take a photograph, you make it.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Search for what is good and strong and beautiful in your society and elaborate from there. Push outward. Always create from what you already have. Then you will know what to do.

The best reason to learn from Leonardo, however, is not to get a better job but to live a better life.

I don’t believe in the phrase ‘aspiring writer.’ To me it’s just, you’re a writer.

Creativity isn’t like a freight train going down the tracks. It’s something that has to be caressed and treated with a great deal of respect...you’ve got to program your brain not to think too much.

Elie Wiesel, of blessed memory, embodied the determination of the human spirit to overcome the darkest of evils, and survive against all the odds.

When I think of people I am close to, I genuinely feel that I can include Josh Lyman, Toby Ziegler, C.J. Cregg and Sam Seaborn.

It's the best thing that's happened to incidental sales since, I don't know, Tickle Me Elmo.

Listen to yourself, and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

When out of all the poets who received the Pulitzer -- the prize awarded to those who made the biggest contributions to the human spirit -- 38 percent of them were bipolar, how can we simply label it a human disorder? Think how much more they could contribute to the human spirit if they knew it could be used as a gift to humanity, instead of something to hide from humanity?