"It is my contention that most people are not mugged every day, that most people in this world do not encounter violence every day. I think we prepare people for violence, and I think it just as important that we prepare people for the definition of being gentle. … for so many years gentle has been equated with weakness but it requires more strength to be gentle. So it's the every day encounters of life that I think we prepare children for and prepare them to be good to other people and to consider other people."

"Back in the old days, when I was a child, we sat around the family table at dinner time and exchanged our daily experiences.... It wasn't very organized, but everyone was recognized and all the news that had to be told was told by each family member. We listened to each other and the interest was not put on; it was real. … A child needs to be listened to and talked to at 3 and 4 and 5 years of age … Parents should not wait for the sophisticated conversation of a teenager."

"We have respect for our audience. … We operate on the conviction that it is composed of young children of potentially good taste, and that this taste should be developed."

"Let me introduce myself. My name is, uh, Kangaroo... Kangaroo — Captain Kangaroo … I'm the keeper here of the Treasure House."

"And have the courage to accept that you’re not perfect, nothing is, and no one is — and that’s OK."

"The person I enjoyed interviewing the most was Elmo from Sesame Street because he is so unpredictable and he is always eating my hair and my face."

"The road less traveled is sometimes fraught with barricades, bumps, and uncharted terrain. But it is on that road where your character is truly tested"

"The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying ‘we’ when referring to the United States and, even the ‘shock and awe’ of the initial stages, it was just too jubilant and just a little uncomfortable. And I remember feeling, when I was anchoring the ‘Today’ show, this inevitable march towards war and kind of feeling like, ‘Will anybody put the brakes on this?’ And is this really being properly challenged by the right people? And I think, at the time, anyone who questioned the administration was considered unpatriotic and it was a very difficult position to be in."

"What is a harp but an over-sized cheese-slicer with cultural pretensions?"

"Smetana certainly knew which side his bride was bartered."

"A counter tenor is anyone who can count to ten."

"He had the kind of handshake that ought never to be used except as a tourniquet."

"I still think of myself as I was 25 years ago. Then I look in a mirror and see an old bastard and realise it's me."

"I'm an Atheist...thank God."

"If it's sent by ship then it's a cargo, if it's sent by road then it's a shipment."

"We spend our lives on the run: we get up by the clock, eat and sleep by the clock, get up again, go to work - and then we retire. And what do they give us? A fucking clock."

"I've stopped smoking... I think the cost was a lot of it, and not being able to breathe. I first gave up smoking when I was eight."

"I don't go out of my way to be outrageous, I just go out of my way to look at things."

"Human sexuality is . . . a long way from the depositing of seminal fluid, like squirting jam in a donut."

"It's a good thing Winston Churchill was around before the shallow age of television. He might never have become one of the greatest leaders of all time and — for my money — one of the most charismatic. And, what the hell, also one of the sexiest."

"White House is open to a compromise on extending these Bush tax cuts. He is not open to it, he has to. What changed? The election, that's what changed. Not only with all those Republicans winning and causes near and dear to the president he knows he is losing. Like whacking fat cats. Fat chance... Folks are rising up and saying enough of this class warfare... we're not at war with each other, we're at war with the government..."

"I give up. Game over. The blame game is not over. Try as I may to get this administration to move on and claim ownership for this economy it's still, still blaming the prior administration for this economy. More than a year in still copping out. The mess we inherited, the bailouts we had to figure out, the banks that went bust, not on our watch but their watch, blah, blah, blah."

"Loaning to minorities and risky folks is a disaster. … [W]hen you and many of your colleagues were pushing for more minority lending and more expanded lending to folks who heretofore couldn't get mortgages, when you were pushing homeownership … Are you totally without culpability here? Are you totally blameless? Are you totally irresponsible of anything that happened?"

"The argument that the countries use for the sheer increase in Muslim doctors is the sheer increase in the Muslim population. In for example Birmingham, England where a lot of these guys came from, where one of these plots was hatched, it's up to 30% of the population. Maybe that's the problem?"

"Trust me, all this fuss over freedoms would fade in a mushroom-cloud moment if there were another attack on our soil."

"Part of the problem with service in this country is we don't honor it like we once did. There's nothing wrong or evil about having a bad day. There's everything wrong with making others have to have it . . . with you."

"Now may I suggest you take your column and shove it?"

"They (the Iraqi people) scraped by to get morsels. You skulked by to get contracts. They couldn't realize a penny from the oil that made Saddam rich. You didn't seem to care, as long as it made you rich. You opted for profit over principle. And deals that made a dictator richer and his people poorer. … You are as crass as you are cunning. As phony as you are pathetic. … You were sickening then. You're sickening now."

"If, in a few months, I’m only number 8 or number 10 in the world, I’ll have to look at what off-the-court work I can do. I will need to do something if I want to be number 1."

"This taught me a lesson, but I’m not sure what it is."

"I’ll let the racket do the talking."

"You are the pits of the world! Vultures! Trash!"

"You cannot be serious!"

"I hear from a lot of people in ongoing nasty emails, ‘You’re a Never Trumper’, or you’re this or ‘We don’t trust you, we don’t believe a word you’re saying.’ And that’s just coming from my family."

"Trouble is a part of your life, and if you don't share it, you don't give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough."

"Here's what I advise any young struggling actress today: The important thing is to develop as a woman first, and a performer second. You wouldn't prostitute yourself to get a part, not if you're in the right mind. You won't be happy, whatever you do, unless you're comfortable with your own conscience."

"People with happy childhoods never overdo; they don't strive or exert themselves. They're moderate, pleasant, well liked, and good citizens. Society needs them. But the tremendous drive and dedication necessary to succeed in any field- not only show business- often seems to be rooted in a disturbed childhood. I wasn't an unloved or an unwanted child, but I was moved around a lot, and then death and cruel circumstances brought many painful separations."

"I don't suppose that hard work, discipline, and a perfectionist attitude toward my work did me any harm. They are a big part of my makeup today, as any of my co-workers will tell you. And when life seemed unbearable, I learned to live in my imagination, and to step inside other people's skins- indispensable abilities for an actress."

"Children internalize their parents' unhappiness. Fortunately, they absorb our contentment just as readily."

"When you're too mad and too rattled to see straight, you're bound to make mistakes. You can't go on and on for years being miserable about a situation and not have it change you. You get so you can't stand yourself."

"You see much more of your children once they leave home."

"For there's a lot of masochism in the acting profession. We're willing to take a lot of punishment, but the minute we hit a little bit of success we are liable to run from it. We're frightened of it and develop all kinds of phobias as a consequence. Outsiders who don't understand think we have a chip on our shoulder, but it's not that at all. We're so used to failure, to being hurt and rebuffed, that we can easily come unhinged by success."

"I closed my eyes, put blinders on, and ignored what was too painful to think about. I tried to view my troubles less seriously, and worry less. I tried to curb my temper. Things said in embarrassment and anger are seldom the truth, but are said to hurt and wound the other person. Once said, they can never be taken back."

"This was the heyday of the movies; it was hard to keep a level head and one's sense of values. MGM made over-worked, spoiled idols out of Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, and Elizabeth Taylor; it wasn't the kids' fault, nor the studio's, it was the System. I too was on the spoiling list for a while, but I didn't go along with it."

"My ideal of womanhood has always been the pioneer woman who fought and worked at her husband's side. She bore the children, kept the home fires burning; she was the hub of the family, the planner and the dreamer."

"Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that's good taste."

"Russell Markert, Lela Rogers, Ed Sedgwick - these were but a few of the experienced theater people who generously gave me a boost. I have a theory about the assists we get in life. Only rarely can we repay those people who helped us, but we can pass that help along to others. That's why, in 1958, I reactivated Lela's theater workshop with two dozen talented kids trying to get started in show business."

"Today's debate: Is it wrong to be strong? You be the judge."