Popular literature and culture used to reflect people's aspirations, pain, and passion. All those particular things are no longer available to us.

But rarely have I made choices that made me feel I was really compromising what I believe.

Mother Earth is in pain and ailing because of global warming.

Democracy is about criticism.

I want people with epilepsy to know that there are ways in which they can play a role in their own recovery. It's all in how they approach what is happening and how they can use that as a catalyst for their own growth. If there's one thing that I've learned, it's that people are willing to embrace you if you share your story.

If we talk about the environment, for example, we have to talk about environmental racism - about the fact that kids in South Central Los Angeles have a third of the lung capacity of kids in Santa Monica.

I didn't elect [Barack] Obama because he's a black; I voted for Obama because he was the right person at the time.