There must be something beyond slaughter and barbarism to support the existence of mankind and we must all help search for it.

Diplomacy in a sense is the opposite of writing. You have to disperse yourself so much: the lady who comes in crying because shes had a fight with the secretary; exports and imports; students in trouble; thumbtacks for the embassy.

There is no creation without tradition; the 'new' is an inflection on a preceding form; novelty is always a variation on the past.

The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States.

The citizen takes his city for granted far too often. He forgets to marvel.

The new world economic order is not an exercise in philanthropy, but in enlightened self-interest for everyone concerned.

In a world torn by every kind of fundamentalism - religious, ethnic, nationalist and tribal - we must grant first place to economic fundamentalism, with its religious conviction that the market, left to its own devices, is capable of resolving all our problems. This faith has its own ayatollahs. Its church is neo-liberalism; its creed is profit; its prayers are for monopolies.