By offshoring the production of their products, U.S. corporations transferred technology, physical plant, and business knowhow to China.

Offshoring manufacturing jobs left Americans with fewer high-value-added, well-paid jobs, and the U.S. middle class downsized. Ladders of upward mobility were taken down. Income and wealth distributions worsened.

Washington is a black hole into which all sanity is sucked out of government deliberations.

In 2004, I predicted in a nationally televised conference in Washington, D.C., that the U.S. would be a Third World country in 20 years.

The concentration of U.S. income and wealth in the hands of the very rich is a new development in my lifetime.

Washington's impulsive use of power is a danger to America and to the world.

The real Social Security crisis is that the government does not have the money to redeem its IOUs.

The government, of course, will print money to bail out the banks' uncovered casino bets, but not to bail out the elderly from the theft of their funds.

Representing the people is not something 'our' representatives do. They are too busy representing a handful of private interest groups such as the financial sector, the military/security complex, and agribusiness.

The way to attack the entitlements problem is to bring the jobs home. This could be done by taxing corporations according to the location, domestic or foreign, at which they add value to their product.

If all countries are exceptional, the word loses its meaning.

A government that cannot survive truth and must resort to stamping out truth is not a government that any country wants.

The Transatlantic and Transpacific Trade and Investment Partnerships have nothing to do with free trade. 'Free trade' is used as a disguise to hide the power these agreements give to corporations to use lawsuits to overturn sovereign laws of nations that regulate pollution, food safety, GMOs, and minimum wages.

The office of U.S. Trade Representative was created in order to permit corporations to write law that serves only their interests.

There are no free financial markets in America or, for that matter, anywhere in the Western word, and few, if any, free markets of any other kind.

The financial markets are rigged by the big banks, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury in the interests of the profits of the few big banks and the dollar's exchange value, which is the basis of U.S. power.

Sometimes we fall in love with the idea of a person and have trouble seeing the real thing.

In tragedy, it's hard to find a good resolution; it's not black and white: it's a big fog of gray.

I think you sometimes have to go hit rock bottom before you can grow and rebuild as a person.

I don't have any tattoos.

Let's say honorary favorite New Yorker is John Lennon, and favorite real New Yorker is Biggie, because he's the best.

I do think the first time you read a script, that gut response is very important, and that probably plants a seed that continues to blossom throughout the whole experience.

I don't like to spend a lot of money on haircuts: I'll sometimes grow my hair and get an acting job and get them to cut it for free. I think for a lady, though, it's okay to spend a lot on a haircut.

The world of the homeless is a tough and interesting world.

When you repeat yourself so many times, even if you're speaking the truth, the repetition starts to feel false. Sometimes, you just feel like the words you're speaking, even if they once had meaning, have lost it. And that makes you feel kind of silly.

Robert De Niro's sort of like a surfer: he doesn't really force anything. So if he catches the wave, or something spills out - to watch a guy be a force at what he does. He has a good worth ethic.

Spring and fall in New York are the best seasons here to get out and about. I like the little park in Dumbo between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridge. I like Prospect Park.

I love Brooklyn; it's a part of who you are.

I do like the idea of consequence and how our actions play themselves out, but I am completely scared of knowing what the future would be like. I would never go near a fortune teller, even though it's probably not even real. I just don't wanna know.

I feel like I have to be responsible for what I'm participating in or putting out into the world.

One thing you notice is, there's a lot of people with raw talent, and then there's people who take that talent and work hard.

I'm not a person who needs to chit-chat between takes by any means.

The hardest thing about working with your partner is that the work starts to become first.

I went to private school in Manhattan, and at a young age, they made us do public speaking. For some reason, I was good at standing in front of the class and speaking.

I like movies a lot, and I feel really excited when I see a movie that moves me the right way.

I like a restaurant called Bruci, and there's some really nice people who work there and good food. They change their menu a lot, so maybe that's what keeps me coming back. I never know what I'm going to get.

I'm very low-maintenance.

At the heart of drama is conflict.

I started acting pretty young, so I haven't had too many odd jobs. But I used to sell candy out of my locker in middle school.

It's hard to talk about acting because I don't think it's quite as explicit as a lot of people might think. And that's probably the best thing about it.

Your director is your main support - actors don't generally give each other advice on set, not in my experience.

I tore my ACL playing basketball.

New York is kind of a mythological city in may ways.

In life, you have to keep certain parts of yourself in check because you want to be a decent human being. But one of the guilty pleasures of acting is that sometimes you get to let a little something out that you don't in life because it's not right.

As people, no matter what we are doing, your whole body is living and breathing.

One of my favorite things I read was John Steinbeck's journals while he was writing 'East of Eden,' which was so cool.

I grew up in Manhattan, and now I live in Brooklyn.

To be called a genius at 17 or 18 years old can sometimes cause arrested development.

I go down to the dive bar around the corner when I go out. I don't go to the showbiz parties.

I'd love to do a really broad comedy at some point.