My commitment originated in my own story and my own relationship to violence.

It seems to me that we spend an inordinate amount of time and attention on fixing ourselves when we could really be directing that out to serving others.

Cancer was the most terrifying, arduous, painful thing, but it was also a profound gift in the sense that I was holding so much in my body for so many years that was dark and terrifying which was preventing my coming back into myself.

In America, we have to really be working on two fronts right now. Immediately, we have to be rising in resistance and protecting our Muslim brothers and sisters [and] every marginalized person under threat and siege. At the same time, we have to be planning and envisioning where we're going. How we build moments and movements, how we come up with the vision we want of a progressive left - that's what comes in after.

Money doesn't make you special, it makes you lucky. Be generous, be crazy, be outrageous.

Security isn't what I hunger for. I hunger for change. I hunger for connection.

I would rate the fact that I get to be alive a big beautiful 10. Satisfaction with myself - work in progress.