Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.

If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can't buy it.

Christianity and Western civilization-what countless crimes have been committed in thy name!

There is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.

We can appreciate each other's languages. And the question of being uncomfortable about our languages would go away.

I'm more trying to connect; I'm more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.

What's good about writing is that when you write novels or fiction, people can see that the problems in one region are similar to problems in another region.

A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible.

We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.

For me, being in prison writing in an African language was a way of saying: "Even if you put me in prison, I will keep on writing in the language which made you put me in prison."

What is translated from English and into English - and in what quantities - is a question of power.

Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance

Thought is the thought of thought. Tranquil brightness. The soul is in a manner all that is: the soul is the form of forms. Tranquillity sudden, vast, candescent: form of forms.

Heroes don't always have capes, badges or uniforms. Sometimes, they support those who do.

You are what your record says you are.

To have a high IQ, you tend to specialize, think deep thoughts. You avoid trivia.

In cloths cheap handsomeness, doth bear the bell.

May I ask your name, my lady? Or perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces.

I work with The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. I sit proudly as one of only two recovering addicts on their board.

Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.

North Korea has a very striking mythology there. It is influencing the whole nation.