No government functions without the grease of corruption.

Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.

Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.

Writing is a struggle against silence.

The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States.

Art gives life to what history killed. Art gives voice to what history denied, silenced, or persecuted. Art brings truth to the lies of history.

I need, therefore I imagine.

One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.

What's happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die.

Time cures you first, and then it kills you.

Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day?

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants and the other is getting it.

Worry compounds the futility of being trapped on a dead-end street. Thinking opens new avenues.

I read a lot when I'm travelling and always have a couple of books on the go.

No human being is illegal.

We need a new global culture that finds the existence of millions of thirsty people thoroughly and immediately unacceptable.

I think I would envy me too, if I didn't know me better.

you must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

If you don't know jewelry, know the jeweler.