To think that land reform is going to somehow automatically create an equitable system, I think that's just wrong. It's a very technical view of the world.

Gandhi saw how people have to re-think their own individuality before engaging in political activity. Otherwise they're just playing the game that the adversary has set out.

In America, you don't even have proper holidays. It's really one of the most prosperous slave societies in history. People work their asses off all year long and get two weeks off! It's incredible.

The people who encouraged me weren't necessarily writers or readers themselves. They were people who were just pleased to see me devote my life to reading and writing.

I found it really disturbing to see a novelist writing a diatribe about Islam and Muslim radical extremists, blurring the distinction between the two.

The idea that human beings can make history, that is something quite unique to the modern West.

We need to infuse politics with ideas like compassion and empathy, and a sense that we live in an interdependent world.

The asymmetries of power that have shaped relations between the West and the rest of the world also exist in the realm of literary criticism.

Most suffering is human-made and avoidable. It's mostly in your head.

Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee great literature.

In the modern world, nationalism remains a very important force. We delude ourselves into thinking that globalization has made all of that redundant and that everyone just wants to be like America.

We are the royal children of God, and He is always busy doing what He knows is best for us. But we must ensure that our frequent thoughts and beliefs aren't going against our true destiny.

The hardest thing about life is that every now and then you have to do things so you have something to tweet about.

That jam was so much fun that by the end of the tour, we just jammed on all of the songs.

In a show or a movie, one must work with many people. Many women just don't have the time for it.

I thought [first girlfriend] was trying to make a fool out of me. Then I found out that she wasn't, and we went out. That's a very good example of how little confidence I had.

Imaginary numbers are a fine and wonderful refuge of the divine spirit almost an amphibian between being and non-being.

The only person who can limit your possibilities is you.

People think, mistakenly, that etiquette means you have to suppress your differences. On the contray, etiquette is what enables you to deal with them; it gives you a set of rules.

The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the 'Living Infinite.

It was a joint, which put it one slippery step up from a dive.