Political Quotes

“If we leave the forests alone, our national forests, they are going to grow just fine, but if the most prosperous nation in the history of western civilization does not make an investment in the arts in this country, then a whole lot of cultural initiatives are going to die on the vine. We cannot let that happen. Mr. Chairman, we have been beating up and gutting the National Endowment for the Arts now for the last several years. Of 117,000 grants that have been awarded by the NEA, fewer than 20 have been controversial. That is a much lower percentage than any of the other arts granting agencies: the Pulitzer prizes, the National Book Awards, you name it. There ought to be some controversy in the arts. But the strongest argument for supporting this increase is our own experience in our own communities. Last week I went to a performance of the Classica Theater in Arlington. Here are a group of Russian emigres who brought with them an invaluable experience in the classical Russian theatrical tradition. What they are doing with a very small grant from the NEA is extraordinarily impressive. The NEA grant gave them the credibility to go out and raise substantially more money.”