If you are an [American] politician it's very hard to imagine. "Now we are going to treat these guys as our equals? That's ridiculous. What have they ever done to deserve that?"

It's a tradition in Islamic society to issue pardons at the end of Ramadan.

Americans tend not to distinguish between political rhetoric and real intentions, which can lead to great misunderstanding.

There's a lack of knowledge about Iran and the Iranian people.

The thing about Iran is there are many political factions and it's not quite the dictatorial, authoritarian state with one person always making every single decision.

Iran is a huge country and much, much more sophisticated than most people imagine... It certainly has the potential to be at least the way Turkey is to most Americans.

The wrong Democratic reaction to a stupid Republican utterance is to play hurt.

I was born in Iran, left at a very young age - less than a year old - and grew up and was educated in the West.

I mean, we do believe in due process in America. I thought we did.

I know that my cell phone in Iran... is bugged, and they listen in, and my emails, I'm sure, are monitored inside Iran. They have my email address; it's not like they can't snoop on it.

Poverty does not belong in civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum. That's where it will be.

And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far into the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

When trouble comes, close ranks

I've got two smoking guns that just look incredible, and I love to pull them out whenever I can.

Sometimes journalists ask me, "What's the message?" There is no message. I think that fiction should not be trying to give messages. Just tell a story.

Getting anything off the ground is going to require a little bit of risk. That risk starts with sharing the idea.

Thousands of miles of wheat, indifference, and self- apology.

After the age of eighty, all contemporaries are friends.

People are studying whether there's a cause of action that competitors, for example, would have if they're harmed by these foreign government payments.

Yoga is all about what you do, actually do, for yourself. Every competitor that is there is there for themselves.