In this environment, "you can't allow yourself to get too bulled up and persuade yourself that everything is going to be fine, " Mr. Mann says.

WSJ: World's Woes Leave Lasting Scars

And I bulled my way through to go ahead and see the honorees before they came out here to sit down because these are extraordinary people.

WHITEHOUSE: The 2010 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Ceremony | The White House