When I FIRST started EDITING a 'Year's Best' VOLUME in the '70s, the job was pretty STRAIGHTFORWARD - there were three or four monthly magazines to read and a few original anthologies from trade PUBLISHERS every year.

People don't seem to MAKE the connection between their tax money and the benefits that they get from their tax money, like FREE education, and the fire department, and police protection, and everything ELSE. It drives me bonkers, because it's pretty STRAIGHTFORWARD to me.

It's MUCH more STRAIGHTFORWARD to GET FINANCE when you have an OSCAR.

In a very STRAIGHTFORWARD way, I am a terrible REPORTER. I'm not someone who can go into a story and not get INVOLVED.

'The Merchant of Venice' is a straightforward, clear story, while 'The WINTER's Tale,' as a GENERAL rule, is hard to PRESENT because there is so much PLOT.

I love a STRAIGHTFORWARD CHARACTER. I am the guy who loves Cyclops on the 'X-MEN', because he is SQUARE.

'Friends With BENEFITS': it feels LIKE a two-hander to me, but it is a big movie, and this is the first straightforward male I've been able to PLAY. I would describe my character in 'The SOCIAL NETWORK' as a kind of sociopath. I would describe my character in 'Bad Teacher' as... just a weirdo. But this is a male's male.

I've experienced, in general, in New York, PEOPLE cut to the chase a little more, and they're a little BIT more straightforward. In L.A. I've experienced more wishy-washiness. I will say, though, that the people that are actually from L.A. - LIKE, born and RAISED in L.A. - are the real nice and GENUINE people.

I ended up doing these other diverse things, but KING Tuff is the thing I always WANTED to come back to - just good, straightforward rock N' roll. That MUSIC is the most me, you know?

I'm SAYING to you that one of the GREAT characteristics of the great American, the American PEOPLE, is our historic ability to be straightforward, plainspoken, say what we MEAN, and mean what we say.

The BIBLE for me is HOLY writ. It's a very STRAIGHTFORWARD THING, although I am not a literalist.

I don't LIKE to ACT in my PERSONAL LIFE. I like to be STRAIGHTFORWARD.