Where I come from, it was a heresy to say you wanted to be in movies, leave alone American movies. We were all encouraged to believe that the classics of the theater were the fiery hoops through which you`d have to pass if you were going to have any self-esteem as a performer. It never occurred to me that that was the case. One of the great privileges of having grown up in a middle-class literary English household, but having gone to school in the front lines in Southeast London, was that I became half-street-urchin and half-good-boy at home. I knew that dichotomy was possible. England is obsessed with where you came from, and they are determined to keep you in that place, be it in a drawing room or in the gutter. The great tradition of liberalism in England is essentially a sponge that absorbs all possibility of change. America looked different to me: the idea of America as a place of infinite possibilities was defined for me through the movies. I`m glad I did the classical work that I did, but it just wasn`t for me. I`m a little bit perverse, and I just hate doing the thing that`s the most obvious.
- Daniel Day-LewisI think that the loud roar of irresponsible liberalism . . . is being quieted down by a reasoning public. I think the pendulum is swinging back. We`re remembering that the past can`t be so bad. We built a nation on it. We have to look to tomorrow.
- John WayneMy no-good Hollywood liberalism, you mean? I don`t know what the right thing to do is. All I know is that when it`s a month before the election, and there are issues that mean so much to me, and someone says "Put your name and your face on this, it might help", I am moved and I say yes. Do I think it`s a good thing for famous people to put their name and face on stuff? I don`t know. When I stop and think about it, maybe, if I want to help, I should just put a baseball hat on, not use my face at all, and be one of the people on the march, write a letter to my congressman, and just be a citizen.
- Helen HuntIt`s interesting that when economic times were the hardest, that`s when many people embraced liberalism.
- Oliver StoneI think experience will teach you a combination of liberalism and conservatism. We have to be progressive and at the same time we have to retain values. We have to hold onto the past as we explore the future.
- Oliver StoneMy generation of the Sixties, with all our great ideals, destroyed liberalism, because of our excesses.
- Camille PagliaDoes defending liberalism leave you friendless and perhaps wondering about your breath?
- Phil OchsWe saw in the 1980s the Reagan Revolution break the grip of liberalism on the country. We saw in the 1990s a conservative resurgence in Congress that broke the liberalism there. Now we stand with the opportunity to see the Supreme Court righted.
- Tony PerkinsBut the West is trying to weaken Islam from outside and inside. They attack our people and invade our countries from outside, and they weaken us from within with ideas like secularism, liberalism and democracy. This is all designed to contaminate our pure Islam.
- Ahmad ShahLiberalism, austere in political trifles, has learned ever more artfully to unite a constant protest against the government with a constant submission to it.
- Aimee LitkaLiberalism is financed by the dividends from Conservatism.
- Alan McGladeBecause liberalism typically doesn`t sell in American presidential politics, liberal candidates tend to run as culturally conservative centrists.
- Amy SwiderskiLiberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.
- Andrew MoranLet`s trace the birth of an idea. It`s born as rampant radicalism, then it becomes progressivism, then liberalism, then it becomes moderated conservative, outmoded, and gone.
- Andy BickingA great achievement of modern liberalism -- and a primary reason for its surviving decades past the credibility of its ideas -- is that it captured black resentment as an exclusive source of power. It even gave this resentment a Democratic Party affiliation. (Anti-war sentiment is the other great source of liberal power, but it is not the steady provider that black and minority resentment has been).
- Barbara DaviesMy analysis is that most faith based systems depend upon an absolute moral order. The declaration of things as absolutely evil or absolutely good, as sin or virtue, puts liberalism into a horrible position because it`s founded on no judgement on anything.
- Barrett GreenLiberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative.
- John Kenneth GalbraithLiberalism is totalitarianism with a human face
- Thomas SowellLiberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.
- William E. Gladstone