I think Islam is in a sense, in crisis. It needs to question and re-question itself.

Every great work of art ... is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.

I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to its poetry. I see polarization, reductionism and superficiality.

Once we know of atrocities we cannot remain silent, and knowledge inevitably leads to an urge to protect the innocent.

That, of course, is what great works of imagination do for us: They make us a little restless, destabilize us, question our preconceived notions and formulas.

I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we articulate what has happened to us through the kind of people we become.

You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist.

It is amazing how, when all possibilities seem to be taken away from you, the minutest opening can become a great freedom.

The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.

I eat my heart out alone.

I am suddenly left alone again on the sunny path, with a memory of the rain.

In all my travels, I've never seen a country's population more determined to forgive, and to build and succeed than in Rwanda.

When love enters your heart, hate is given an eviction notice.

The Russians have fixed world chess.

You rarely hear anyone use the word pancreas in a not-horrible context.

To be honest, I don't have data in my brain of how a relationship with a man is supposed to function.

Frog or pearl, life hid something at the bottom of the cup.

Some people make it hard for me to believe in universal evolution.

Fear comes from the unknown. Once you know, then, whatever.

Broke is a temporary condition, poor is a state of mind.

Does it strike you, Mr. Keller, that we live every day in the science fiction of our youth?