...much of what was said did not matter, and that much of what mattered could not be said.

But if writing about people who are not yourself is illegitimate, then the only legitimate work is autobiography; and as a reader and a citizen, I don’t want to live in that world.

In any country, corruption tends to increase when more respectable means of social advancement break down.

I'm useless when I meet writers I love - I go slack-jawed and stupid with awe.

A great deal of what is presumed to be intractable or inevitable in this world doesn't strike me that way at all.

We often have an exaggerated sense of what nonprofits and governments are doing to help the poor, but the really inspiring thing is how much the poor are doing to help themselves.

One thing that was very clear to me is that the young people in a place like Annawadi aren't tripping on caste the way their parents are. They know their parents have these old views.

I think it's this congenital problem with journalism that we oversell the difference we make. We make small differences.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Never trust anyone who tells you how people come to trust them.

.. becoming attached to a country involves pressing, uncomfortable questions about justice and opportunity for its least powerful citizens.

I tell Allah I love Him immensely, immensely. But I tell Him I cannot be better, because of how the world is.

If you're afraid to fail you'll never succeed

Live, Die, Kill but don't complain!

You can't take highways during the apocalypse, because they'll be packed with panicky people.

Oh, the lies that I have told myself and others. I knew it yet I didn't know.

A People Magazine article in 1982 referred to him as the late Abe Vigoda. The very-much-alive Vigoda placed an ad in Variety with him in a coffin holding a copy of People Magazine.

The Brother's eyes narrowed. "But here's something to keep in mind. You ever hurt him on purpose and I will consider you my enemy.

Contagion has become very much a phenomenon, and it's a phenomenon of globalization.

Everything that occurs in your life is an opportunity for awakening. There are no exceptions!

No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

The thing about art for me is that you can go on theorising your work forever, because it's open to interpretation.