While we all want the U.N. to live up to its original intent and be the place where the world comes together to solve international problems, the reality is the U.N. isn't all that different from any other political body. Countries and individuals play to the cameras, create good theatre, and negotiate selfishly.

I think what you are supposed to be when you are young is idealistic and passionate.

There is no way to expect one ambassador to cover all of the U.S. government's priority issues, and certainly there are a plethora of U.N. meetings that drag on with an unlimited number of speakers and no time limits.

Very few teachers or leaders in my small Michigan community ever discussed the issue of 'The Catcher in the Rye,' and certainly no one came to the 1951 Novel's defense.

'The Catcher in the Rye' was targeted by some schools as a book too risque to read and certainly not appropriate for young minds. My parents certainly would not have approved of the book, but I secretly read it when I was in 7th grade. I felt so rebellious, and my young mind loved it.

One of the reasons the American public holds unelected government officials in such low esteem is that they are never held accountable for their failures.

The next time a news outlet complains about the state of our political rhetoric or the uninformed U.S. voter, we should promptly point them to the video of Ashley Parker raucous in a Polish cemetery or Philip Rucker's diatribes on party invitations.

The case against Susan Rice has been building for years with little fanfare. Not surprising, the mainstream media reporters based at the U.N. have either ignored her mistakes or strategically covered them up.

Hillary Clinton's Russian re-set policy gave Moscow permission to go from privately challenging U.S. foreign policy to publicly moving military hardware into Syria to prop up Bashar al-Assad and annexing Crimea from Ukraine. And Donald Trump seems to support the idea that Putin will be Putin. It's enough to leave America's allies confused.

The Russian propaganda machine, even in the U.S., is not to be discounted.

Maybe Hillary Clinton was right in 2008 when she called Barack Obama 'naive' on foreign policy.

Boko Haram has pledged its allegiance and support to ISIS. The Northern Nigerian-based Islamic terrorist group wants Sharia law throughout Nigeria and beyond.

Wall Street, like every industry, has good and bad players.

In the past, liberals have competed to see who could shout the loudest to shut down the banks, ridicule success, and penalize anyone working in finance. In fact, the Occupy Wall Street movement was an aggressive liberal effort to shut down Wall Street banks.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have deep ties to corporate money. They both have a detailed and complexed view of how some on Wall Street manipulate the game. They know where the excesses are and who is to blame. If willing to take on their friends, they both could reform Wall Street from the inside.

It is hard to know exactly when the Arab Spring, a phrase used to describe the beginning of the Arab peoples' demand for democracy and human-rights reform, started.

As president, Governor Romney would handle the Syrian conflict much differently. A President Romney would not ignore a growing conflict in a dangerous region involving allies the way Obama has, especially when chemical weapons could possibly be used.

President Obama believes getting along is more valuable than standing firm for U.S. interests.

No American ambassador has produced more Security Council Resolutions on the issue of Iran than John Bolton.

Since the fright of breast cancer hit our family, I have been surprised by how many people are dealing with breast cancer in their own family or with a loved one. One friend bluntly told me that she has been through it with her sister, her mom, and her grandmother, and all are healthy and mentally stronger because of the disease.

Voters should absolutely know that a future president has the instincts to react to real-life and unrehearsed situations.

When Barack Obama was running for president, he committed to leading the United Nations and other countries towards a common global goal. Obama believed that he could speak to allies and dictators directly and charm them into seeing the error of their ways.

Yes, but Hollywood is the strangest place in that they'll torpedo their own film to prove an emotional point.

I admire people who can just brazenly go through the world.

When you have a film that's acclaimed, there's a tendency to go big or get serious or something, but I had an impulse to do the opposite.

My plan B has always been to make a film about people who talk a lot.

Every film's different; every story is so different. But I think I've always been attracted to try to take something minimal and to maximize it cinematically. To find out if I can I really go all the way with one idea.

I lost a year or two in there, trying to get films financed that I didn't know would never get financing.

Hollywood has a way of sucking the world's talent to it.

The human psyche creates structure. We all go through our lives like, 'Oh! And then I moved here.' We're pattern-seeking, structure-producing machines.

I want to make a film about a factory worker.

In interviews, I never wanted to play into the myth of, 'Yeah, I was sitting there doing nothing, and then made 'Slacker.'' No. I'd been making shorts, a Super-8 feature, and running a film society. I always try to stress to people that there's a lot of work involved and years of preparation. But no one wants to hear that part.

I'm a huge Nagisa Oshima fan. He was one of the most radical Japanese directors to come up in the '60s.

I think you get in trouble if you make experimental big studio films.

My working method has always been, 'Work really hard and get it right the first time.'

I think there are more films being made, but there are probably less outlets for them and distributors.

I'm lucky that I get to jump around, do a big-budget comedy and then a smaller film. I don't even make a big distinction between them.

I think I got really lucky with Slacker. That was a film that probably shouldn't have been seen.

Pro athletes, how they go through the world is so elevated. The bubble they're in is one of entitlement. And that starts young. By the time they're in college, they've had it a lot of their life.

There's a long history of people who spent that $300,000 on their first film and weren't quite ready, and then they never did it again 'cause they were out of synch with where they were, and they would never raise that money again.

Everybody just wants to appreciate time as it's passing, to be in the moment. It's the hardest thing to do. You're either in the unknown future that you're working toward, or you're in the past that becomes a little abstract.

We filmmakers are control freaks. For us, it's about bending the elements of a story into existence.

'Slacker' is so not about navel-gazing.

The worst thing is that you used to be able to show interesting films on campuses. Those places are all gone.

The film culture has no room for ideas. The literary culture has some room, but not less than they should, and the academic culture has a lot, but there's no way to communicate it in a wide way.

A lot of Luis Bunuel's later, European films are all great.

It's disappointing to see films become pure entertainment, so that it's not an art form.

Maybe part of being a dad means that the slightest little thing will make me tear up.

I guess I don't have a grandiose view of the world in general, and I never believe it when someone else has a grandiose moment.

Every college player thinks they're on their way. But, delusions aside, I might have toiled in the minor leagues for a bit.