Via Hotline blog:

Entertainment Weekly: So is there any conceivable possibility in the modern world for the assertion of conventional heroism?

EASTWOOD: I don't see it right now. I certainly don't see any politician that's a hero in any party anywhere. I think John McCain did something that I don't know if I could do and I don't think many men can look in the mirror and say they'd do: give up a chance to get out of prison because his dad was an admiral and the Vietnamese were going to let him go. I mean that took cojones....