I struggled with each of these studies and I was uncertain about what they meant, and often confused, and then I tried to put together what I was seeing.

Again, I was influenced by my father, who was very much an atheist and took pride in combating the traditional or orthodox forms of Judaism, which his parents and which my mother's parents were very steeped in.

I did the first study because I had been exposed to something that I took to be important and interesting - this thought reform process - in the military.

Sometimes it's said that psychiatrists are doctors who are frightened by the sight of blood. I might have fallen into that category.

I don't have the feeling that as a very young person I read books that absolutely made their mark on my mind.

The other thing that happened was my last military assignment - this was in the air force; I had enlisted in order to avoid being drafted as a private, and of course I only practiced medicine or psychiatry in the air force so I was never in any kind of violent combat.

But when I went to Hiroshima and began to study or just listen to people's descriptions of their work, it was quite clear they were talking about death all the time, about people dying all around them, about their own fear of death.

But I spent just two calendar years at Cornell University, though it was covering more than three years of work, and then went to medical school and did become interested in psychiatry, and even helped form a kind of psychiatry club in medical school.

Every adult in the world has some sense that he or she might be obliterated at any time by these weapons that we have created.

I'm a Brooklyn boy. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised there, and spent most of my childhood there.

It was because of my deep concerns about nuclear weapons that I went to Hiroshima. And then I was astounded in Hiroshima to find that nobody had really studied it.

And I thought about the psychic numbing involved in strategic projections of using hydrogen bombs or nuclear weapons of any kind. And I also thought about ways in which all of us undergo what could be called the numbing of everyday life.

And I managed to arrange to get some research support and to stay in Hong Kong for another year and a half, interviewing people coming out of China, both Westerners and Chinese. And that was my first real research study on thought reform or so-called brainwashing.

I struggled with each of these studies and I was uncertain about what they meant, and often confused, and then I tried to put together what I was seeing.

One reason that I embarked on a study of Nazi doctors was that in this personal journey, I had the feeling increasingly that I did want to do a Holocaust study and that increasingly I wanted it to be of perpetrators, which I thought was more needed.

As a kid I was fascinated with sports, and I loved sports more than anything else. The first books I read were about sports, like books about Baseball Joe, as one baseball hero was called.

Yes, I've been very preoccupied with the survivor all through my work.

I learned a lot from Vietnam veterans, especially as some of them turned against their own war.

When I was still in my psychiatric residency training in New York City, I was subjected to the doctor draft of that time, during the early fifties, at the time of the Korean War.

That is, we are bombarded by all kinds of images and influences and we have to fend some of them off if we're to take in any of them, or to carry through just our ordinary day's work, or really deepen whatever we have to do or say.

What I found was when I started my first study, and then in subsequent studies, is here you have people under some kind of duress, or I chose to study them because they represented some kind of historical event, as it impacted on them or as they helped to create it.

I never quite envisioned myself a proper doctor under that white coat, but I was interested in the idea of healing and in the psychological dimension rather early on.

It may sound terrible, but I often say that the military saved me from a conventional life in the United States and I've never really thanked them for it, because I haven't exactly been pro-military in my work.

I have a particular affliction. I am unable to say a word I can't spell.

I used to get into a lot of fights.

When Steven Spielberg thinks you're the one, then I'll do anything. If you want me to put a dead horse on my head, I'll do it.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

You have to be able to accept failure to get better.

The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.

I forgot my pills, I couldn't have cared less about condoms, all for feverishly wanting to get some!

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.

Trying to explain Turing's work in encryption and decryption? It's complicated.

If destruction fails to entangle us distraction will do its best.

A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.

I think people are hungry for someone who will stand up on principle.

A sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the realization that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences. You are responsible for your life, and your ultimate success depends on the choices you make.

Future is a meaningless word if you don't give your heart and soul to your dreams. What happens to us is never etched in stone, but determined by what we want to happen Death is inevitable, but life is what we can avoid, if we so choose.

They... threw themselves into the interests of the rest but each plowed his or her own furrow. Their thoughts their little passions and hopes and desires all ran along separate lines. Family life is like this animated but collateral.

This is a free country, and nobody should be criticized for their political beliefs. We're all allowed to have our opinions.

I'm not on Twitter or Facebook. I've never been interested in being on any of them. I don't know why I'm not. I just don't have that need. I feel like I'm one of the only people I know who doesn't do it.

I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.

My heroes are Robert Duvall, Forest Whitaker, Ed Harris, Tommy Lee Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Sean Penn.

I like to protect children. I mean, there's nothing wrong with having adult programming for mature adults that can selectively decide what they want to watch and what they don't want to watch.

Music, many times, around the world, serves to help us understand other people without having to talk.

You have all the influence you choose to have.

I come from the world of improv; I love any show or any vehicle that gives me an opportunity to be in the moment.

You just have to be comfortable in your own skin before you jump into something where people that you're going against are going to be better than you in some way every time.