If you can make people understand why freedom is so important through the arts, that would be a big help.

We do need great change in Burma. We are trying to build a new society, a society where basic human rights are respected, and where our people enjoy all the benefits of democratic institutions.

I don't understand why people say that I am full of courage. I feel terribly nervous.

At the moment I would like to emphasize the need for vocational training, for non-formal education in Burma to help all those young people who have suffered from a bad education. They have to be trained to earn their living. They have to have enough education vocational training to be able to set up respectable lives for themselves.

Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival.

Kindness can change the lives of people.

Once serious political dialogue has begun, the international community can assume that we have achieved genuine progress along the road to real democratisation.