There must be people who remember World War II and the Holocaust who can help us get out of this rut.

Our world is so glutted with useless information, images, useless images, sounds, all this sort of thing. It's a cacophony, it's like a madness I think that's been happening in the past twenty-five years. And I think anything that can help a person sit in a room alone and not worry about it is good.

I know that I come from mid-20th century America, urban, specifically downtown New York, specifically an Italian-American area, Roman Catholic - that's who I am. And a part of what I know is there's a decency to people who tried to make a living in the kind of world that was around us and also the Skid Row area of the Bowery; it impressed me.

I loved the idea of seeing the world through a boy's eyes.

It seems to me that any sensible person must see that violence does not change the world and if it does, then only temporarily.

I'm re-energized by being around people who mean a lot to me.