Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories.

I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason.

If anyone had told us in 1945 that there are certain battles we'll have to fight again we wouldn't have believed it. Racism, anti-Semitism, starvation of children and, who would have believed that? At least I was convinced then, naively, that at least something happened in history that, because of myself, certain things cannot happen again.

No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has escaped the kingdom of night.

I'm not a political person, and their ambitions are not mine. They want power. I don't want power.

[Tibet] is a small country based on religious principle, religious traditions. It never wanted any conquest.

When I have my manuscript finished, more or less, I type it myself, with two fingers. I type fast with two fingers. And then when it's ready, I reread, recorrect, and retype it. Everything is my own work. I do not give it to secretaries or to typists.