what is the future of the american songbook? >> i do not know. i am not terribly optimistic. i think we have become such a visual society. again, i go back to television. i love television. i am an inveterate watcher myself but not at the expense of not reading. i think there is certain kinds of experience, learning experience, that one has officially by reading at your own speed and going back and re- reading a passage that intrigues you that you cannot have either in film or any visual. it is someone else's page and it is going by you. >> also, the young writers today, they do not have an opportunity to hear. >> you mean songwriters. >> songwriters. they do not have an opportunity to hear and learn what we learned from those great writers. composers and lyricists that we were talking about. you cannot black or learn what you cannot hear -- like or learn what you cannot hear. it is difficult to hear the great things from the great american songbook. >> think of what we grew up on. the theater in those days. we mentioned to you -- this to you once when we were waiting for qui

have been nominated for all the academy awards and won them, who are firmly ensconced in the american songbook. your humility is so profound. how you hold on to that kind of humility in a town like this or an industry like yours were you have achieved just about everything? not just about my think you have achieved everything. >> i do not know if it is humility. you. -- you talk about times. can we talk for the remaining minutes about the times we're in? i am frightened. election coming up. i have to talk about this. there is an election coming up in five months. it is scary. i think maybe i have had a long life. maybe the most important election of my life. i am afraid what could happen if the voices of division and hate drown out the voices of everything that we really have been talking about tonight. of humanity, of literacy, of society, everything we care about. i just am terrified. i think people do not read. we go back to reading. i do not know where they get their news from, if they really do not need a -- read a broad spectrum of what is out there. if you just watch one television stat

it is diul to heath from the great american songbook. >> thi of what we grew upn. the thter in those days. we mentioned to you -- this to younce when we were waiting for jonquincy. tavis:ou always wait for quincy. >> we had to kill time. werew up pooinbrooklyn, but we were old enough to go on the we would sneak into theater, larlarticu musical theat in the send act. it c wft, rely. u would find o when inteission in ery was show, exactly where tt was in every weathe it could be freezing out,ould take f your jacket or coat and you would stand with it or your arm and lookike you just came of the theater and mix ihen with crowd. this was aold-t sw with standing room. it was a cinch. you just stand in the back it became a trek to figure out where the empty seats mht b anyway. even though we could not afford to s the whole show, is the kind of poetic justice that it was often we would walk out of shows -- people uld walk ou of sws.vis: that is funny if yive lo enoh, it balances out. >> that is true. and you get e valued timso mu. wegrewp on great mical theater. great fil