Empathy may be the single most important quality that must be nurtured to give peace a fighting chance.

That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.

Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons. They're usually fought for hegemony, for business. And then of course there's the business of war.

He folded his fear into a perfect rose. He held it out in the palm of his hand. She took it from him and put it in her hair.

Ammu said that human beings were creatures of habit, and it was amazing the kind of things one could get used to.

...a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it, and within it is no struggle at all.

She viewed ethnic cleansing, famine and genocide as direct threats to her furniture.

NGOs are dangerous. They do what the missionaries used to do in Colonial times. They are Trojan Horses. The worse the situation, the more the NGOs.

Railing against the past will not heal us. History has happened. It's over and done with. All we can do is to change its course by encouraging what we love instead of destroying what we don't.

I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.

All animals are born with innocence, curiosity and love.

In climbing, having confidence in your partners is no small concern. One climber's actions can affect the welfare of the entire team.

As long as the state permits itself to interfere in the affairs of literature, literature has the right to interfere with the affairs of state.

Inertia is so easy—don't fix what's not broken. Leave well enough alone. So we end up accepting what is broken, mistaking complaining for action, procrastinating for deliberation.

Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.

Writing is the lonely sport of sad sacks.

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last of the evening.

There's always beauty, if you know where to look.

Human beings are repetitive animals. All meaning is generated through repetition.