When you have people who get angry quickly, you have to learn the rules to avoid being in that situation.

Anthropological fieldwork is so much like writing a novel. You don't know what the hell is going on.

I've always thought of writing as sort of active communication.

Was it possible in any relationship to not disappoint, to do anything more than only briefly rekindle the initial fatal illusion?

When I finished graduate school, the first George Bush was president, and I really wanted to get out of the country. We'd just gone through the first Gulf War.

I've also done things that put me in odd situations.

There are certain tribes in the middle Sepik that eat raw bat. A certain kind of raw bat is a delicacy.

Anthropologists are great at novelistic observations. I would be thrilled if this novel would encourage anthropologists to write what they see in fictional form.

Perhaps all science is merely self-investigation.

I'm very interested in the way people interact emotionally.

There are very few things I would love to do other than a life of writing, and I think being a singer-songwriter and being an anthropologist are the two other things I can imagine doing.

You were standing in the wake of devastation And you were waiting on the edge of the unknown And with the cataclysm raining down Insides crying "Save me now" You were there, impossibly alone

...flight from tyranny does not of itself insure a safe asylum, far less a happy home.

Human history in essence is the history of ideas.

My films are always concerned with family, friendship, honor, and patriotism.

The general perception, in much of the Middle East, is that the United States is an unreliable friend and a harmless enemy. I think we want to give the exact opposite impression.

To have a good enemy, choose a friend; he knows where to strike.

Injustice alone can shake down the pillars of the skies, and restore the reign of Chaos and Night.

Never complain. Never explain.

The reputation you have with yourself - your self-esteem - is the single most important factor for a fulfilling life.

We were very pleased to have the opportunity to come to Israel and visit the holy sites in the Old City.