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Stephen Ambrose
Biographer and Historian
Moira and I found it very hard to listen to Nixon. That morning's headlines had been "a new record tonnage of bombs" had been dropped on Cambodia, and the stories in the papers were about free fire zones and napalm, and, and we just couldn't take it. So we started to heckle, and as the national press reported, "From the faculty section, obscenities were hurled at the President." And it was true, because the heckling that we did was "Free fire zones! Napalm! B-52s!" And halfway through I was --Moira was really louder than I was on this, I've got to say, with whatever feeling about it. I said, "We gotta get out of here. I can't take this." And we go. And we were front row center. We got up and walked out on the President. Well the reaction in Kansas! I had just arrived, I had this prestigious title, and I'd insulted the President. And they wanted to fire me. And I was -- yeah, I was 35, I guess. Thirty-three, and had five kids. When I married Moira, she had three kids. You know, I didn't have any money. I mean, I had a nice salary -- the biggest salary I'd ever had -- when I got that chair, but I didn't have any savings or anything like that. And I was looking at getting fired in September. We had just committed to a house, had a huge mortgage on the house, and so on. That was a difficult time.
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Julie Andrews
Legend of Stage and Screen
Julie Andrews: I was 18. I was 19 the day after we opened on Broadway. And, it's the first time I had ever really been away from my family for that potential length of time, and suddenly I got so panicked about it, and I called my dad, my real dad. And, I said, "Oh god, daddy, they're asking me to go for two years. What should I do? I don't think I can be away from the family for that long." And he said, "Well chick, it could run two weeks or two months. It might not be two years, and it would open up your head to such an extent, I think you should do it." I asked him later in life whether that was a hard thing to do and he said it was one of the hardest things, to say, "Go," to just throw me into the bigger pond, so to speak, and hope that I would swim. And of course, because dad said it, oh, he said a wonderful thing. When I said, "But how will I know what to do?" he said, "Your own good brain will tell you what to do when the time comes," which was hugely flattering and kind of implied that he thought I could cope. So, I took my courage in both hands and said, "I would like to accept this contract but I will not go for longer than one year." And lo and behold, Messrs, Feuer and Martin said, "Fine." And, I was the only one of the company that had a one-year contract, so off I went to Broadway for a year of incredible learning and education.
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Maya Angelou
Poet and Historian
Maya Angelou: Dr. King was a human being. He had a sense of humor which was wonderful. It is very dangerous to make a person larger than life because, then, young men and women are tempted to believe, well, if he was that great, he's inaccessible, and I can never try to be that or emulate that or achieve that. The truth is, Martin Luther King was a human being with a brilliant mind, a powerful heart, and insight, and courage and also with a sense of humor. So he was accessible. I mentioned courage, and I would like to say something else about that, finding courage in the leaders and in you who will become leaders. Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtues consistently. You see? You can't be consistently kind or fair or humane or generous, not without courage, because if you don't have it, sooner or later you will stop and say, "Eh, the threat is too much. The difficulty is too high. The challenge is too great." So I would like to say that Dr. King, while we know from all the publicity that he was brilliant, and he was powerful, and he was passionate and right, he was also a funny man, and that's nice to know.
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Maya Angelou
Poet and Historian
We are all in process. And that's what I mean, again, about intelligence and its value. We have all believed the most outrageous things at different times in our lives. And as the position became untenable, as we saw through that position we were holding -- Here is where courage comes in: To be able to say, "Say everybody, you know what I said yesterday, and said so fervently, and said with such passion? Well I don't believe that any more. I have been changed." Now that is courage. So that is, you have the courage -- the insight to see, and the courage to say. That was Martin. That was Malcolm. That was it.
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Maya Angelou
Poet and Historian
I notice on airplanes -- I have almost two million miles on Delta, so you know I am always in the air. I notice that if a person is very nervous and gets frightened when there is turbulence, it is the moment that happens, even though I am frightened, if I move over to the person and say, "Let me help you. Listen, all is well, I have been through this many times," that person will hold on to my arm or my hand and suddenly, I am freed and I am rid of fear. So it is something quite marvelous to help somebody else. You have no idea how much you help yourself.
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Maya Angelou
Poet and Historian
It's called Brave Warriors Don't Cry, or something like that. It's going to be out in a few months. It's an incredible book, and I would encourage it for all young men and women -- all -- just to read what it's like to be 15, and try to go to a school where people are shouting and screaming at you and throwing things and saying how awful you are and that you stink. And then to persevere, to somehow continue, keep your head up, your chin out, you know, and walk on in. It's a marvelous book.
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