National Anthem

If America is destroyed,

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If America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers – normally good Americans, but Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free, Americans who have been lulled away into a false … Read more

All of us …

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All of us … should remember that no amount of flag-waving, pledging allegiance, or fervent singing of the national anthem is evidence that we are patriotic in the real sense of the word. … Outward behavior, while important, is not the real measure of a man’s patriotism. Eleanor Roosevelt

in the newspapers I

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in the newspapers I read a biography about an American. He left his whole huge fortune to factories and for the positive sciences, his skeleton to the students at the academy there, and his skin to make a drum so as to have the American national anthem drummed on it day and night. Fyodor Dostoevsky

I actually had that

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I actually had that conversation with [Channel 4 Chief Creative Officer] Jay Hunt. We were at a bit of a crisis point. I’d written a totally different script – about war, basically – that got rejected at the last minute for various reasons. The whole of the series was in doubt. I said, Well, there … Read more

National Anthem was just

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National Anthem was just a funny idea I’d been knocking about. I initially thought about a beloved celebrity having to do that – and then I watched an episode of 24. In my head, I was writing almost a parody of a 24-style president woken in the middle of the night with a crisis. It … Read more