It's only when an American steps outside of their own culture that you see how integral it is.

Black culture is very difficult to explain to people who don't have any direct contact with it.

The gestures and the swagger and the attitude of black men is imitated everywhere in American culture, but people still find black men intolerable.

It was always a false assumption that white American writers cannot write novels about race unless they're approaching it from a very oblique angle.

Only when you leave do you appreciate what binds American people and our cultural experience together.

Prajna is insight into the world. And a lot of that insight has to do with karma and the way karma affects our lives.

The truth is that an intellectual life is available to almost anyone, almost anywhere, if they work hard enough and are given some kind of access point.

I was raised with opera and very white-bread folk music like The Kingston Trio. That was about as daring as it got. So when I discovered hip-hop as a teenager, at first it made no sense to me at all.

I had a lot of expectations placed on me because I was already having some success with my short stories. That was not a good situation to be in. That by itself took a long time to overcome.

There is something very quiet and reserved and pessimistic about Obama's temperament that is deeply un-American. There are those people who claim, "Oh, he wasn't born here" - all that is nonsense.

The politics of transgender identity are really complicated. And the debate over how much of gender is biological and how much of it is socially constructed is a very complex debate.

Man wants to be the king o’ the rabbits, he best wear a pair o’ floppy ears.

It's not only the politician that can govern and lead a nation

It’s the oldest story in the world. You want him back, don’t you?

I assure you I will not miss the chance to show you that you were right when you voted for me.

I am not a great believer in fairy tales. Every woman should fight hard for her own happy endings. Although occasionally it is nice to wake up as a princess.

As I look back over my life, I've been an active person - obviously I was self-absorbed for a period of time.

There is no more striking illustration of the immobility of British institutions than the House of Commons.

A lot of people are willing to pray or to put in work, but they're not willing to take true risks.

I want to learn more. I want to know more. That's what taking this time is about. I'm curious about so many things, but haven't had occasion to be exposed to them enough to really appreciate them.

I like going to areas where the murder rate is high and dropping it.