Large numbers of people are broken from the notion that the system is working for people, that the system is just or humane or peaceful.

I breathed the air of deliverance through books, and through books I leapt over the walls of confinement.

The idea that teaching is somehow the delivery of the goods is such a misunderstanding of what actually goes on.

If the logic of capitalism is "expand or die," then either it has to die or the world has to die.

I get up every morning and think, today I'm going to make a difference. Today I'm going to end capitalism. Today I'm going to make a revolution. I go to bed every night disappointed but I'm back to work tomorrow, and that's the only way you can do it.

I don't think saying "I was wrong here, I was wrong there" absolves you of anything particularly, nor does it get you into heaven.

The only people who have never had a problem with me speaking in their venues are independent bookstores and libraries. Universities and humanities councils have canceled me, but never an independent bookstore.