Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event. If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy.

The purpose of art actually is, in many cases, to make you feel quite uncomfortable. Or at least to go to that place that's already of discomfort inside of you and tap into that.

You can't regulate child labor. You can't regulate slavery. Some things are just wrong.

No decisions should ever be made without asking the question, is this for the common good?

Every parent wants to do what's best for their child. Whatever I can afford, I'm going to get my kid the best education I can get.

Capitalism is an organized system to guarantee that greed becomes the primary force of our economic system and allows the few at the top to get very wealthy and has the rest of us riding around thinking we can be that way, too - if we just work hard enough, sell enough Tupperware and Amway products, we can get a pink Cadillac.

I don't want to do anything that violates my own personal code of ethics and morals.

Healthcare should be between the doctor and the patient. And if the doctor says something needs to be done, the government should guarantee it gets paid for.

I say stupid white men are always the problem. That's never going to change.

You do not have the right to take another human's life, unless it's in strict self-defense.

Should such an ignorant people lead the world? How did it come to this in the first place? 82 percent of us don't even have a passport! Just a handful can speak a language other than English.

I made 'Bowling for Columbine' in the hope the school shootings would stop and that we would address the issue of how easy it is to get a gun in the United States, and tragically, those school shootings continue.

The movie theater is never going away. If that was a case why are there still restaurants? People still have kitchens in their home!

There's not democracy in the workplace. I mean, through most of our daily lives, the idea of democracy is fairly nonexistent. And I think things work better when the people who have to work with whatever it is we're working with have a say in how it's working.

Many criminals believe what they say is true; they could pass a lie detector test.

WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions.

If we say, 'The government sucks,' we're kind of saying that we suck.

I still believe the lessons I learned when I was raised in a Roman Catholic household. Like, it's harder for a rich man to get into Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

I have never owned a share of stock in my life, and the only time I've double dipped into anything is at the snack tray.

I think that there's something in the American psyche, it's almost this kind of right or privilege, this sense of entitlement, to resolve our conflicts with violence. There's an arrogance to that concept if you think about it. To actually have to sit down and talk, to listen, to compromise, that's hard work.

I drive an American car. It's a Chrysler. That's not an endorsement. It's more like a cry for pity.

I'm a millionaire, I'm a multi-millionaire. I'm filthy rich. You know why I'm a multi-millionaire? 'Cause multi-millions like what I do.

People of my age who went to college, go into college, you know what it cost back then? Nothing or next to nothing. At the most, you had to work at Dairy Queen during the summer and that would pay for your college education.

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win.

I think there are few things more patriotic than taking the time to make your country a better place.

I'm tired of this discussion of capitalism and socialism; we live in the 21st century, we need an economic system that has democracy as its underpinnings and an ethical code.

There's over a billion people on this planet that don't have access to clean drinking water.

If you believe in equality, if you believe in standing up for the rights of all, especially for people most affected by bigotry and discrimination, then you have no choice but to be present and accounted for when it comes to standing up for gays and lesbians in our society.

People like me who grew up in a working-class town, who don't have a college education, you don't usually hear from us.

Because I have an opinion, I have become public enemy number one to the Fox News Channel and the right wing.

The 'fiscal cliff' is a ruse, an invention by the right and the rich, to try and keep their huge tax breaks.

Any time you've got both the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, you're not long for the White House.

A newspaper is a public trust, and we will suffer as a society without them. It is not the Internet that has killed them. It is their own greed, it is their own stupidity, and it is capitalism that has taken our daily newspapers from us.

Any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.

There's a gullible side to the American people. They can be easily misled.

The American media wants to pump you full of fear.

Democrats have a history of backing away, backing down.

Building up the arms did not cause the fall of Eastern Europe.

I don't compromise my values and I don't compromise my work. That's why I've been kicked from one network to the next: I won't give in.

Filmmakers and artists always thrive during more liberal times.

Librarians in America do something like a couple of billion dollars worth of book business every year.

The media love to cover black people on the front page. After all, when you live in a society that will lock up about 30 percent of all black men at some time in their lives and send more of them to prison than to college, chances are a fair number of those black faces will end up in the newspaper.

Every fact in my films is true. And yet how often do I have to read over and over again about supposed falsehoods?

All of our political parties are bought and paid for by corporate America, Wall Street, and the wealthy interests. The Republican Party more so, but the Democrats take their share of the loot, too.

My film about Bush didn't prevent his reelection.

If the guy out in the woods with the Michigan Militia is a real estate negotiator, instead of some crackpot, and has a normal life, that's unnerving. You don't want to think it's as normal as the guy next door, hedging his lawn. It's easier to demonize or separate them off from 'us.'

You can't debate satire. Either you get it or you don't.

I was a good little boy and a good student. I've never been arrested.

The upper 1 percent, the people down on Wall Street, the corporate executives, they're the people that control this economy.

This is the crux of the problem: because the Republicans and the right wing have been successful in almost eliminating unions, everyone else has suffered as a result.