I mean the prime case that you can look at is Martin Luther King, who was only an activist for 13 years. But every year, he became deeper, more concerned, connecting more issues.

[John] McCain seemed to be winking to the Right, and [Barack] Obama seemed to be winking to the Left. Neither one of them - if McCain had been elected we'd still be where we are on gay rights.

This 1965. We went to trial on our city. We were obviously borrowing tactics and strategy from the Black freedom movement, and we were echoing their approach to things.

Art and activism can be symbiotic. They don't have to be, of course; they can also be contradictory.

Something about the fact that an African American had, given the long sad history of our country, now become President - that was exhilarating.

Two thousand people a day were being murdered in Vietnam in a terrorist war, an official terrorist war.

To be a human being is to suffer. But it's the unnecessary suffering, it's the suffering that we visit upon one another, that really should be stopped.