People From New York City

"You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics."

"I don't think that Solow, in particular, has ever tried to come to grips with any of these issues except by making jokes."

"I have tried to suggest that injustice is not necessary economics;that the economics can work, and has often worked, when the constituency for it is animated. The politics of equality - that is a little harder."

"Kuttner then enumerates the limitations of markets. Deregulation of airlines, for example has led both to a loss of service and to higher average fares. Nor are free markets really free. They come to be dominated by giants, like Time Warner and Rupert Murdoch."

"Why, then, should we have to lower our living standards? What is the mysterious source of the economic loss? If productivity is increasing, why should we sacrifice services and wages?"

"By default, we have created a "system" of nursing-home care for the aged in which middle-class people pay exorbitant rates to for-profit nursing-home entrepreneurs - and then when private resources are consumed and the patient qualifies as a pauper, the nursing home begins billing Medicaid. This is precisely the antithesis of social citizenship; instead of the poor being accorded the dignity associated with the middle class, equality of treatment is achieved by making the middle class undergo pauperization."

"Britain, with the most completely socialized health system in the West, now spends the lowest fraction of GNP on health care of any major nation. There are frequent complaints of excessive waits for elective surgery and other inconveniences, but British citizens live slightly longer than Americans, on average, and our overall health conditions are comparable."

"We are already well down the road toward a managed-trade regime. It would be far better to acknowledge that reality, and seek a set of reasonable rules, than to pretend that Ricardian trade is the norm and allow mercantilist states to overwhelm U.S. industry and ratchet down wages, in the name of free trade."

"Henry Ford, in a sense, was the first Keynesian. He paid his assembly workers high wages so they could afford to buy his cars."

"In a world where technology and capital are highly transferable, there is a real risk that comparative advantage comes to be defined as whose labor force will work for the lowest wage."

"Not surprisingly, extensive effort in Britain and America goes into finding tax shelter. the system is "efficient" for the shelter industry, not for the economy."

"When laissez-faire creates instability, the move to a freer market can be something less than pure gain."

"If got a big head start on the 707 from multibillion-dollar military contracts to develop an air force transport, is that a sin against free trade?"

"The total impact of the Reagan tax cuts on capital lowered the effective cost of capital to American industry by an estimated 1.2 percent. Unfortunately, the Laffer curve did not work as advertised. Lower tax rates did not produce more tax revenues. They produced deficits."

"Technological advance often thrives in sheltered and subsidized markets, which defy free trade."

"Keynes, like Freud and Marx, deserves to be read in the original, not through the glosses of his lesser disciples."

"In America, we build public housing by creating lucrative inducements to private developers, and then wax indignant at the public waste."

"American critics of welfare statism are often surprised to learn that countries like West Germany, with a much more comprehensive welfare state and a statistically "larger" public sector, have fewer government employees per capita than the United States does."

"It is more than a little ironic that "capital accumulation" once a rather tendentious Marxian view of a supposed capitalist obsession, should have become - of all things - Wall Street's own slogan."

"If social security depresses savings rates, it is only because it is unfunded."

"Political conservatives have focused on tax reduction as an economic growth strategy for three reasons. First it is self-serving; it saves rich people lots of money. Second, it comports with their ideological allegiance to laissez-faire economics. And third, tax incentives are less intrusive to business-as-usual than any other form of government planning."

"In practice, a good deal of the outcomes produced by the market reflect nothing more than luck - good or bad."

"Technological change is beneficial only when other jobs replace the ones lost."

"Can we reverse these deeply rooted sources of inequality? Or are they just endemic to a capitalist economy?"

"The economic illusion is the belief that social justice is bad for economic growth."

"But of course you can have your cake and eat it, too - if you decide to bake a second cake. And you may well find that baking two cakes does not take twice the work of baking one."

"Like a literary Lear, Harold Bloom stands amid the storm, lamenting and fulminating as he fights to protect the kingdom of letters against what he calls the "rabblement of lemmings", the multicultural ideologues and political doctrinaires who assail it from all sides... His primary target is what he calls "The School of Resentment", the "rabblement" of "feminists, Afro-centrists, Marxists, Foucault-inspired New Historicists or Deconstructors" who would bend literature to ideology or pull it apart in the name of social justice. But he has equal scorn for right-leaning critics who defend the Western canon on the basis of its moral authority."

"Harold Bloom’s theory is that all poets are in competition with their forebears, and that in paying homage to them they really distort them. I think the theory itself is flawed; sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes homage is simply homage."

"as Harold Bloom said, “You want novelty? Read the classics.”"

"Hamlet, Kiekegaard, Kafka are ironists in the wake of Jesus. All Western irony is a repetition of Jesus' enigmas/riddles, in amalgam with the ironies of Socrates."

"The outward limit of human achievement."

"Bloom is very interested in the powerful "characters" which are thrown up in the process. He celebrates Goethe's "unique and overwhelming personality", Montaigne's "highly original personality" and various critics' "vehement and colorful personalities". In this he takes his cue from Johnson, who reinvested the art of biographical criticism. For Bloom lacks Johnson's restraint; instead he is imbued with a strain of neo-romantic fervour which allows him to speak continually of the "sublime" and to invoke the principles of "strangeness" and "originality" as the canonical qualities of great writing. He is also preoccupied by the actual characters within various fictions and imagines, for example, Falstaff and the Wife of Bath in some titanic confrontation. He is not very far here from Hazlitt or Lamb, but he is a Romantic essayist who has also been touched by Pater's aestheticism. It is hard, however, to think of a better tradition for any literary critic."

"I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike — and I don't think there really is a distinction between the two — are always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats."

"I must say these Oxfordians are very virulent and, forgive me for saying it, very crazy people indeed."

"Well, thank you, Vanessa Williams, and thank you, Judy Kuhn, for your wonderful performances of the song, and Robbie Buchanan for a wonderful production of the single -- for arrangement of the single and Keith Sonnet for production. Stephen... (Stephen Schwartz: We want to express our appreciation to members of the Academy. Our deep gratitude to our colleagues at Disney, past and present. And I want to acknowledge my personal debt to the Native American poets and wisdom keepers who inspired my work on this project, most particularly in the case of this song, Chief Seattle. Thank you very much.)"

"Lucretius and his tradition taught Shelley that freedom came from understanding causation."

"I've been very fortunate to work with a studio like Disney that really values music. And that attitude starts at the top, and I want to thank Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney and Michael Eisner for making my work possible. "Aladdin" was a major transition for me from my longtime collaborator and friend Howard Ashman to a new role and new songwriting partner in Tim Rice. As always I was blessed with great support from my music team: Danny Troob and David Friedman, from Chris Montan and Andy Hill, Bruce Botnick, Michael Farrow and Kathy Bennett. From Peter Schneider, John Musker, Ron Clements, Amy Pell and Don Ernst. I owe a debt of thanks to all of them and to the brilliant animators, musicians, singers and actors who made "Aladdin" so spectacular and magical. Scott Shukat, my family, my wife Janis, and Anna and Nora, my love and thanks. And to the members of the Academy, thank you very, very much."

"Shelley, who in Prometheus Unbound had observed that the wise lack love and those who have love lack wisdom, went to his end in The Triumph of Life asking why good and the means of good were irreconcilable."

"Well, a lot of time and effort and collaboration went into the score of "Pocahontas." I have a lot of people to thank and not a lot of time to thank them. So I want to thank my music team. My orchestrator Danny Troob, synth[?] arranger Martin Erskine, my music editor Kathy Bennett, engineer John Richards. My thanks to Chris Montan, Tod Cooper, our directors Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg, our producers, Jim Pentecost, my Disney family past and present. Time doesn't permit me to say all their names but I particularly want to thank Peter Schneider and Tom Schumacher and all the brilliant singers, musicians and technicians whose talents made "Pocahontas" sing. And thank you, Academy members."

"First of all I'd like to thank my collaborator Howard Ashman who encouraged me to take the opportunity to compose my first film score with "The Little Mermaid." Thank you for your support, Howard. I'd like to thank all the people at Disney: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy Disney, Peter Schneider and Maureen Donley. Our outstanding directors: John Musker, Ron Clements. And thanks to a great music department: my orchestrator Thomas Pasatieri, conductor J.A.C. ["Jack"] Redford, music editor Kathy Bennett, recording engineer John Richards, supervisors Chris Montan and Andy Hill. Special thanks to my manager Scott Shukat and my wife Janis. And Academy members, thank you."

"(Howard Ashman:I won't do fish jokes, just say a couple thank yous. At Disney to Jeff Katzenberg, Peter Schneider. To Sam Wright, who sang the song, all the words. Mostly though to John Musker and Ron Clements whose movie "Little Mermaid" really is. At William Morris there's Don Aslan, Mike Peretzian and my beloved Esther Sherman. And at home there's my mom, there's my sister, there's Nancy, and Bill. I feel really lucky. Thank you.) Thanks to the musical team that worked on the songs: Robby Merkin, Thomas Pasatieri, and J.A.C. ["Jack"] Redford in particular. Thank you. And thank you to the Academy."

"Having a tradition is a great thing to work within, and maybe today [it] is the only way to land musically dramatic work."

"On behalf of all the composers I want to thank Debbie Allen for that [referring to the production number]. That was just great. I'd like to thank the members of the Academy, in particular the members of the Music Branch, for this honor. At Disney I want to thank Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy Disney, Peter Schneider, our producer Don Hahn, our directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, and our brilliant animators. And I can't say enough about my music team. My orchestrator Danny Troob, conductor David Friedman, recording engineers John Richards, Michael Farrow, Bruce Botnick. Many thanks to the Disney music department, Chris Montan, Andy Hill. My music editor Kathy Bennett. My love and thanks to Janis, Anna and Nora. My mom and dad. My manager Scott Shukat. And most of all, I thank my late partner and friend, Howard Ashman. Howard, I wish you could have seen the finished product. I wish you could have heard the completed score. I know you would have been proud. Thank you."

"On behalf of Howard, I know if he were here he would want to thank Angela Lansbury for her incomparable performance of the song in the movie as "Mrs. Potts," and also Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson for their performance. Also thanks to Walter A. and Robbie Buchanan for their work on the single. And accepting for Howard will be Bill Lauch. (Bill Lauch: Thanks, Alan. Howard and I shared a home and a life together and I'm very happy and very proud to accept this for him. But it is bittersweet. This is the first Academy Award given to someone we've lost to AIDS. In working on "Beauty and the Beast" Howard faced incredible personal challenges but always gave his best. And what made that possible was an atmosphere of understanding, love and support. That's something everyone facing AIDS not only needs, but deserves. There's an inscription at Howard's grave in Baltimore. It reads, "O, that he had one more song to sing." We'll never hear that song, but I'm deeply grateful for this tribute you've given to what he left behind. For Howard, I thank you.)"

"Collaboration is being open to each other's ideas and benefiting from each other's perspectives in an open way. Collaboration is all about rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and helping each other to constantly improve a piece. And, it's also about spurring each other on to doing great, hard work — it's easier to do it in a collaboration than on your own."

"(Tim Rice: Thank you very much. I'd like to thank everybody in the Academy who voted for me, especially Alan. And I'd like to pay tribute to two great lyricists. One, of course, is Howard Ashman. I'm extremely lucky to be standing in his shoes. I know he'd be here today if he were still alive. And the other is the great Sammy Cahn, who is my inspiration for many years. And it's great to be working with Alan, and my thanks to everybody at Disney.) A couple of thanks. Thanks to Lea Salonga and Brad Kane, and thanks to Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. And of course Walter Afanasieff and Robert Buchanan, for creating a beautiful record. And thank you, Chris Montan, for never giving up on this song. Thank you."

"I love the play between the conscious and unconscious minds in the creative moment, and for me chess and the martial arts are both about developing a rich working relationship with your intuition."

"Josh writes almost from a position of wonder, a person who admires thunderstorms and violent seas, he ponders the life lessons through which he has progressed, appraises, incorporates and evolves methods to deal with harsh reality and learn to use it to one’s own benefit."

"My first teachers were street players, guys who would hustle you, get in your head, break you down mentally before they did it over the board."

"Our minds are all different and I believe cultivating a keen introspective sensitivity is absolutely essential in discovering our potential."