Until we know the assumptions in which we are drenched, we cannot know ourselves.

Those who speak largely of the human condition are usually those most exempt from its oppressions - whether of sex, race, or servitude.

We are, none of us, 'either' mothers or daughters; to our amazement, confusion, and greater complexity, we are both.

I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all the extraneous delights should be withheld or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.

One of the great functions of art is to help us imagine what it is like to be not ourselves, what it is like to be someone or something else, what it is like to live in another skin, what it is like to live in another body, and in that sense to surpass ourselves, to go out beyond ourselves.

They can rule the world while they can persuade us our pain belongs in some order is death by famine worse than death by suicide, than a life of famine and suicide...?

If you are trying to transform a brutalized society into one where people can live in dignity and hope, you begin with the empowering of the most powerless. You build from the ground up.