Dying away from home, away from the soil of your birth - and to do so unseen and unmourned - is a profound horror.

Even though we've written epic poems and made incredible films about love, I still don't think anyone can understand what it is, or why it means everything.

I think every morning we wake up offers a new beginning, a new way of stepping into the day. I think every conversation could be a new chance.

Matters of the subconscious affect reality in ways we don't quite realize.

For Kenya: we have a chance to start again each time we meet one another. The ghosts do not need to define the future.

Every Kenyan writer has offered me something to hold onto, something to believe in.

I don't think Kenya is the only country that tries to induce amnesia - it seems to be a global phenomenon. But offenses do not die. They do not disappear.

Even if you're in charge of the grand story there's still memory. The other stories do not go away.

I can edit into infinity. It's such a joy. I'd probably edit until the last word. Until there's only one word left.

Burma evoked the lost Kenyan soldiers who served in the war. You never hear about them. There were a significant number of casualties, men who never came back home. But they're never commemorated.

I like talking to myself and making patterns out of the letters of the alphabet on blank surfaces.

Optimism is a gift, but one that must be carefully controlled. Your hopeful optimism will get us all killed!

If we knew how to use the power of our thoughts, we could travel the world in a second.

So many older people, they just sit around all day long and they don't get any exercise. Their muscles atrophy, and they lose their strength, their energy and vitality by inactivity.

I played all kinds of sports when I was young: tennis, handball, basketball, some soccer. I focused on basketball when I was 16 or 17 and then came to the U.S. when I was 20.

The greatest attribute of Heaven is mercy.

I haven't read the 'Twilight' books. But it's everywhere so I feel like I know it. Edward, Bella, Jacob, etc. but... I haven't read them.

Globalization exists but we shouldn't conflate globalization with trade agreements. Trade agreements is how we can shape globalization.

I hope you'll make mistakes. If you're making mistakes, it means you're out there doing something.

There is an old American saying 'He who lives in a glass house should not try to kill two birds with one stone.

Writing books is fun because after I do a show for a couple hours, I'm in a bus for 22 hours. It's not hard for me to look out the window and tell a joke here and there.