A good portion of the airport is on ceded lands, and lease money was paid for that. So the state's collecting lease money because all of a sudden "worthless" land now has an airport on it.

Western concepts of ownership and privatization came in and clashed with that. So land began to be exchanged.

So as soon as the land was worth something and there was money in the bank, all of a sudden everybody got interested in non-discrimination, in who's really going to administer this stuff.

When there wasn't any money involved, for all intents and purposes, nobody gave a damn. But now the land, supposedly worthless, is seen for what it really is: an incredibly valuable asset.

You're talking serious money already in the bank, and millions of dollars coming in every year.

So there's always been this clash between what is the public good - that which belongs to all of us in common - and what can be exploited for a private interest.

It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited, to look in the eyes and find light there.

The first choice an artist makes is precisely to be an artist, and if he chooses to be an artist it is in consideration of what he is himself and because of a certain idea he has of art

Sometimes it takes failure to figure out who you aren't.

I'm always standing on the edge of something bad.

Gratefulness is not just saying "thank you." It's acting. It is being yourself. A mother is grateful, shows gratefulness by mothering, a scientist by doing science.

I recreate myself; that is my only power.

I am convinced of the validity of contradiction. There are many worlds. Each is true, at its time, in its own fashion

For me to make lasagna would be a desecration of a great Italian dish. . . . I don't mess with sacred things.

Sometimes artists can have the same sound, but they can give you a show that makes you see it in a completely different way.

Not to have a big head about it, but people love me.