The U.S.S. Maine was sent into Havana's harbor to protect American citizens and property and to intimidate the Cubans into behaving. Then it exploded on February 15. It killed more than 250 sailors.

Cuba rebelled against Spain in 1868 and fought for ten years.

On February 25, Theodore Roosevelt cabled naval commanders in the Pacific to prepare for military action against Spain. President McKinley ordered most of the cables undone, but he did leave Admiral George Dewey. Dewey was told to attack the Spanish fleet in the Philippines if the U.S. went to war with Spain.

Late in March, McKinley sent a list of demands to Spain, including; compensation for the Maine, an end to the reconcentration camps, a truce in Cuba, and Cuban independence. Spain accepted all but the last.

McKinley decided he could not stop the cries for war, even after Spain accepted all but the last of his demands. On April 11, 1898 he sent a war message to Congress. Not soon after that, Congress recognized Cuban independence and authorized force against Spain.

Good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.

I have to have the cotton candy shipped in.

We live in an emotionally fragile culture. We are in touch with every hurt past, present, and perceived. We are the walking wounded, and we want everyone to know.

I have an electric Fender and a Telecaster. I have a Taylor and a Martin. I want to get more guitars for more sounds.

Let us live no more to ourselves, but to Him who loved us, and gave Himself to die for us.

Mainly I love working on good writing.

Ultimately, there's always been a link between comic books and video games, and comic books and movies, and then basically all three steadily becoming this sort of transmedia.

Being diagnosed with diabetes can be a very scary thing, and it can easily make your life stand still for a moment.

Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning.

My fan mail is enormous. Everyone is under six.

I bear solemn witness to the fact that NATO heads of state and of government meet only to go through the tedious motions of reading speeches, drafted by others, with the principal objective of not rocking the boat.

High school wasn't so bad though because, by then, I had worked out that there were far more nerdy kids and poor kids than there were rich, popular kids, so, at the very least, we had them outnumbered.

Stand-up is hard. Or to keep it at a certain level is hard: I have no writers but me.

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

While it may take generations of nurturing, nations founded on and grounded in freedom will eventually overcome and prosper. Once free, folks rarely accept anything less, and that includes Iraqis.

Farewell fair cruelty.

My workout regimen at the moment is nonexistent. I wake up in the morning and brush my teeth. My toothbrush and deodorant are my only dumbbells. That's about it.

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.

By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur.

Always make sure your heart is bigger than your head.

I was clear about the fact that my first film should be 'big,' since it's the start of your whole career graph.

As an actor, you're always worried about getting stuck on a show that's not good because working actors need the paycheck. So being cast on a regular procedural, where everything gets wrapped up by the end of the episode, was always a fear of mine because that doesn't really test you as an actor.

In writing about Harold and Maureen with their terrible unspoken secret, and all those people that Harold meets as he walks to save a friend's life, I was trying to celebrate the ordinary people.