The great untruth around which everything pivots is the idea that the defenders of these statues are the defenders of history and truth; while those who want to see them toppled or contextualised are the Huns at the gate, who would destroy national histories and bring down great men.

David Olusoga

I'm delighted. I don't know of anybody who had a statue built of them while they were living. It's a great feeling.

In Tbilisi in 1990, I recall watching zealous Georgians smash statues of Lenin and Stalin. A few days earlier, though, in Moscow I had been invited to address the Red Army, as one of the first Brits to benefit from Glasnost. The subject they chose: The Cuban Missile Crisis.

Alistair Horne

Zeal Watching Watch

My dad grew up really poor in Mississippi. I paid attention to that because I thought that's a healthier thing to pay attention to than, like, some statue of a great-great-great grandfather who has no connection to my life.

Anderson Cooper

Life Health Great

I run from Horatio Street down just past Battery Park City and back. It's amazing to run and see the Statue of Liberty and the ferries coming in. People think if you're not near Central Park, there's nowhere to go, but there's a whole ecosystem happening down here.

Andy Cohen

Amazing You Whole

The painter leaves his mark. And I just put in two statues in Rhode Island that I'm working on. And I think that's going to make me last longer than me.

Anthony Quinn

Work Working Us

I have a running daydream about winning an Oscar and giving my speech about how ridiculous it is to rank art. And then I'd call them all sycophants and leave the statue at the podium as I walked away.

Ari Shaffir

Car Art Winning

I'm always caught up in the thrill of award season: The golden statues, the glamorous stars, and the fabulous gowns.

Ashlan Gorse Cousteau

War Ways Way

The relationship between critic and writer is similar to the one between the pigeon and the statue.

Ashwin Sanghi

Relationship Writer Write

I don't actually feel multi-talented. I just feel that I'm in this business where we give ourselves 100 titles and gold statues. It's like, lawyers aren't like, 'You're incredible! You're a professional arguer in front of the judge! You're great at paperwork!' No, you just get credit for one job.

B. J. Novak

Work Great Business

When I got a telly we had no aerial, but I discovered that if I or one of the children stood by it you could get a picture. So I had to make a statue that could stand by the telly.

Beryl Bainbridge

You Too Telly

My attitude is, a monument, a statue, ought to signify unity instead of division.

Bill Nelson

Men Attitude Vision

Confederate statues belong in a historical museum, not in a place of honor.

Bill Nelson

Use Us T

Labor should not be about creating monuments on hills or statues in parks. Labor's monuments and statues are when a young person can find a job, when a person with disability can get access to the ordinary life that others take for granted.

Bill Shorten

Men Life Young

Nothing takes the sting out of these tough economic times like watching a bunch of millionaires giving golden statues to each other.

Billy Crystal

Time Watching Watch

When they told me there would be a statue erected at Wrigley Field, I was happy with that. I know there will be a meeting place for a lot of people. There will be a conversation every day. They say now, 'I'll meet you at Ernie Banks' statue.' After Sept. 7, they'll say, 'I'll meet you by Billy Williams' statue.'

Billy Williams

You Would Wit

I have a wonderful make-up crew. They're the same people restoring the Statue of Liberty.

Bob Hope

Funny Wonderful Wonder

I grew up in New Jersey and never went up the Statue of Liberty.

Buzz Aldrin

Up T Statue

I always liked church. I was one of those kids who was desperate for the statue of Mary to talk to me, which is a very egotistical approach to your faith. I just wanted somebody to pay attention to me.

Carrie Coon

Faith Your You

I looked at some of the statues of Jesus; they were just stones with no life. When they said that God is three, I was puzzled even more but could not argue. I believed it, simply because I had to have respect for the faith of my parents.

Cat Stevens

Respect Life God

Living in New York City, I am reminded by the Statue of Liberty that the United States of America has always welcomed those yearning to breathe free and seek a better life.

Charles B. Rangel

Life York Yearning

I'm not going to waste my time worrying about these Confederate statues. That's wasted energy.

Charles Barkley

Activating is about changing people's perceptions of overlooked or invisible spaces. A building can become an archetype, invisible, like for a New Yorker, for example, the Statue of Liberty. You look at it, and it disappears into the thousands of times you've already seen it.

Chris Jordan

A lot of women don't like when they're sort of fat, but a fat foot is as beautiful as a skinny foot. Think of Greek statues. Look how many people love the foot of the baby! There is something super-charming about the baby foot.

Christian Louboutin

I sang and played keyboard, so I was virtually a statue at the back of the stage. I'm not complaining about that; I enjoyed that role.

Christine McVie

I took a trip to D.C. before the Off Broadway production started, and one of the things that was really telling is that Hamilton has probably the smallest statue in all of the Mall area, and yet he's got the greatest monument of any of them because we're all walking around with him in our pockets.

Christopher Jackson

If you want to initiate a broader debate about racism, is it really healthy to create an atmosphere in which it is not only statues that are being toppled but a range of cultural artefacts, TV series, celebrities, columnists and controversial broadcasters?

Claire Fox

You have to accept the fact that sometimes you are the pigeon, and sometimes you are the statue.

Claude Chabrol

When I was younger it was - you know, my dad dressed up in drag on 'Bosom Buddies.' And that was what I was having to deal with at the time. And then around the time that I was into college was when he became statue-worthy I guess you could say.

Colin Hanks

Over my dead body when I'm governor of Virginia are we ever going to take down the statue of Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson or any hero of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Corey Stewart

Did you see the statue topple? Bill Clinton got nostalgic seeing something that big in a beret go down.

Craig Kilborn

When you look at what's written under the Statue of Liberty, it's the immigrant story. It's about 'bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.' It's not about 'only bring me only your rich, your wealthy, your smart.'

Daniel Dae Kim

And you have to remember that I came to America as an immigrant. You know, on a ship, through the Statue of Liberty. And I saw that skyline, not just as a representation of steel and concrete and glass, but as really the substance of the American Dream.

Daniel Libeskind

Fonteyn was our first proper British ballerina, and from the moment I started dancing, her image engulfed me. In my first year at the Royal Ballet School, Margot's statue was outside my dormitory. Like generations of budding ballet dancers before me, I used to touch her middle finger for luck.

Darcey Bussell

When I first came to New York City, what I was thrilled about was not the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty; it was the fireplugs in the street. These things that Jack Kirby had drawn. Or these cylindrical water towers on top of buildings that Steve Ditko's 'Spider-Man' fights used to happen in and around.

Dave Gibbons

I've always had a strong feeling for the Statue of Liberty, because it became the statue of my personal liberty.

David Antin

It's not about composition. It's the way you feel about how your objects should relate to each other. I've got lots of African statues and things, and the cleaner arranges them like soldiers, which drives me mad. So I have to rearrange them, and I must drive her mad, because I'm doing anarchy and she's doing military manoeuvres.

David Bailey

Donald Trump was in a tuxedo, standing next to his award: a statue of a palm tree, as tall as a toddler. It was 2010, and Trump was being honored by a charity - the Palm Beach Police Foundation - for his 'selfless support' of its cause. His support did not include any of his own money.

David Fahrenthold

If you walk into the front hallway of the CIA, you will see, on your left, a statue of William 'Wild Bill' Donovan. Bill Donovan was the person who created the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, which was America's spy agency during World War II and then kind of morphed into what's now the CIA.

David Ignatius

I've asked every grammar schoolteacher in the nation to have their students write on the meaning of the Statue of Liberty. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the winning kid got up to the microphone and, in front of the world, had to dig into a pocket to pull out a crumpled sheet of paper containing the words that would move us all?

David L. Wolper

History, after all, is a process, not a position, and it is not best written in bronze and marble. It is complex, plastic and ever-changing; all things that heroic statues are not.

David Olusoga

The great untruth around which everything pivots is the idea that the defenders of these statues are the defenders of history and truth; while those who want to see them toppled or contextualised are the Huns at the gate, who would destroy national histories and bring down great men.

David Olusoga

Historians spend their days engaged in the literally endless task of reshaping and expanding our view of the past, while statues are fixed and inflexible.

David Olusoga

There's a statue of Jimmy Stewart in the Hollywood Wax Museum, and the statue talks better than he does.

Dean Martin

The word 'iconic' is used too frequently - an icon is a statue carved in wood. It was shocking at first, when I got that reference. It was a responsibility, and it's impossible to live up to - you're supposed to be dead, for one thing.

Debbie Harry

What was moving, I think, was the fact that the statue is a woman and not a heroic, manly figure. So for all her scale and immensity, there's something soft about the Statue of Liberty, something tender about her.

Derek Walcott

I had never imagined that one day, my statue would be installed at Madame Tussauds.

Diljit Dosanjh

Before me, Milkha Singhji was honored at Tussauds. But his statue did not have him in a turban, so I think I am the first turbaned Sardar to be featured at Tussauds.

Diljit Dosanjh

I don't see any justification for the federal government owning land, other than the Statue of Liberty and maybe a few parks, maybe a few refuges. But to just own land to do nothing with it I think is a disservice to the Constitution.

Don Young

Now there was no wonder in the Statue of Liberty illusion because he, Copperfield, attempted to do something so large that it stretched the credibility of the audience to the point where most people didn't believe any of it anymore.

Doug Henning

In 2012, the city of Austin erected an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of Willie Nelson in the heart of the business district. Schoolchildren, churchgoers, tourists, slackers, conventioneers, tech geeks - everybody, it seems - now congregate around this ponytailed shrine to outlaw country.

Douglas Brinkley