There are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal and progressive change in America: good public policy, grassroots organizing and electoral politics.

I saw as a teacher how, if you take that spark of learning that those children have, and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment.

Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning.

Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people.

There was one issue on which there seemed to be almost unanimity: the Internet should not be managed by any government, national or multinational.

I have a lot of respect for countries where the practice of democracy is highly developed. I think, however, that each country has to have its own specific features of democracy.

Art is inherently political. Even trying to make a film that has nothing to do with politics is, in and of itself, a political act.

That's not how national security works... I don't care what the Supreme Court said 30 years ago or what some judge said 15 minutes ago. This is America, and our government is collecting way too damn much data on we the private citizens!