Ashley Sanders, a woman in her early twenties, has a sharp mind combined with a gentle and unpresumptuous way of making confrontational statements. With candor and incisiveness beyond her years, she discusses the importance of critical thinking, the damaging effects of dogma and doctrine, and the pleasure of working to make institutions better than they are. Her passion for asking an institution that it hew to its own ideals and that it require personal accountability (including coherent thought processes) of all its members, is beautifully expressed without contentiousness. Although she is speaking of her church, her ideas are also secular in their applicabiity. This interview is from 2007 and is 30 minutes long.
Gregory Peck, receiving the American Film Institute Achievement Award, 1989. Peck wonders if quality in films and television might ever be viewed as "glamorous" as the then-recent mergers in multi-media conglomerates. "Making millions is not the whole ball game. Pride of workmanship is worth more. Artistry is worth more. The human imagination is a priceless resource." He quotes TS Eliot's ideal of entertainment, that it "enlarge the sympathies, that it stimulate the mind and the spirit, puncture the balloons of hypocrisy and greed and sham, tickle the funny bone and leave us with a glow that comes when we are well-entertained." In the link below, these comments are found starting at 7:33 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm_-wFczJ1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm_-wFczJ1s