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.

I think that freedom is sometimes a state of mind. Sometimes, mind you, but not always.

So, I think that for the authorities to say now that calling for sanctions will prevent dialogue is a ploy to stop us from supporting sanctions. It has to be the other way around: dialogue first, then we stop our call for sanctions, because sanctions make people understand that you cannot exercise repression and at the same time expect international support.

Every thought, every word, and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace. Each and every one of us is capable of making such a contribution.

If I advocate cautious optimism it is not because I do not have faith in the future but because I do not want to encourage blind faith.

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.

Fear is a habit; I am not afraid.