I only used a cell phone for the first time after I was released. I had difficulty coping with it because it seemed so small and insubstantial.

There should be no political prisoners in a democratic country.

As I travel through my country, people often ask me how it feels to have been imprisoned in my home -first for six years, then for 19 months. How could I stand the separation from family and friends? It is ironic, I say, that in an authoritarian state it is only the prisoner of conscience who is genuinely free. Yes, we have given up our right to a normal life. But we have stayed true to that most precious part of our humanity-our conscience.

My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.

One prisoner of conscience is one too many.

When the Nobel Committee chose to honor me, the road I had chosen of my own free will became a less lonely path to follow.

The main aim of the [political] dialogue should be to resolve the problems of the nation, not to find who is the winner and who is the loser. That's not what it's all about. It's to try and find an answer that is acceptable to all parties concerned, which would of course require some give and take.