I've got tonnes of aboriginal and Native American art but I'd like even more.

Film in the 20th century it's the American art form like jazz.

Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that's it. No America no jazz. I've seen people try to connect it to other countries for instance to Africa but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa.

Abstract Expressionism - the first American movement to have a worldwide influence - was remarkably short-lived: It heated up after World War II and was all but done for by 1960 (although visit any art school today and you'll find a would-be Willem de Kooning).

Robert Rauschenberg was not a giant of American art he was the giant. No American created so many aesthetic openings for so many artists.

I like it when somebody tells me a story and I actually really feel that that's becoming like a lost art in American cinema.

You look at the steamboat the railroad the car the airplane - not all of these were invented in the Anglo-American world but they were popularized and extended by it. They were made possible by the financial architecture the capital intensive operations invented and developed by the Anglo-Americans.

The American attitude towards efficiency and execution should always underlie architecture.

I probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s and into my 30s I began to become aware of how so much of my art and architecture has a decidedly Eastern character.

I have designed the most buildings of any living American architect.

The bungalow had more to do with how Americans live today than any other building that has gone remotely by the name of architecture in our history.

1 month ago the American people stopped to remember the third anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war. We thought first and foremost of the selflessness patriotism and heroism by our troops our National Guard and Reserves.

This anniversary serves to help remind the American people that in the wake of one of the greatest political scandals and misuse of power in our history as a nation scandal produced important reforms that served this nation well for two decades.

Presently the Commission for Commemorating 350 Years of American Jewish History has been brought about to encourage and sponsor a variety of historical activities that advance our understanding of the American Jewish experience as it marks this milestone anniversary.

On this important anniversary we must remember that while we have come a long way in eliminating barriers critical work remains to ensure all Americans can live up to their full potential.

We can't forget what happened on May 4th 1970 when four students gave up their lives because they had the American constitutional right of peaceful protest. They gave up their lives. And to sing that song in that spot on that anniversary was very emotional for us.

I share the anger but ultimately to govern this country it takes more than anger. It takes experience. It takes positions that reflect the best values of the American people.

The American people are smart. They've gotten sick of the predictable hyperpartisan talking points and canned anger.

Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans' anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts his presidency and worse our economy will be paralyzed.

I think there is a big difference between expressing the pain and anger that many African Americans and other people of color may feel versus language that I think now crosses the line and goes into hate.

There are people still in the Republican Party that I believe practice the communication of anger of disappointment of regret of pain of sorrow of suffering. That's not what the American people want to hear.

I was able to do To Sleep with Anger a very powerful film about African Americans their spirituality and the things that happened within a small community and a family.

People are always angry at America. They're absolutely certain that America either caused their problems or is deliberately not fixing their problems. But the anger is always directed at America and never at Americans.

It is pretty amazing. My parents who came from Nicaragua to the U.S. - who would have thought that they would have American kids on the Olympic team? I think that's the epitome of the Olympic dream.