I think of Wangari Mathai in Kenya. If she started out saying she wanted to plant 20 million trees, she would have been laughed at. In fact, the foresters and the government did laugh at her. They said, "Villagers? Un-schooled villagers? Planting trees? No, no, no, it takes foresters." So she planted trees anyway.

[Fear] means that we are human beings walking into the unknown, and that we are risking breaking with others for something we believe in.

I think that luxury has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with beauty.

I was a compulsive eater in my late teens and until I wrote Diet for a Small Planet, so I know what it feels like when food becomes a threat.

I think back to when I was growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, in the 1950s, during the [John] McCarthy era, with two parents who founded a Unitarian Church. We lived in a little frame house, and my bedroom was just down the hall from the kitchen. My favorite memories of childhood are of the smell of coffee wafting into my bedroom as my parents and their friends talked about the big, important things - about racism and about how to move our country to live its values.

With an eco-mind, we get ready for surprises, for we realize it's just not possible to know what's possible.

For me hope isn't wishful thinking or blind faith about the future. It's a stance toward life - one of curiosity and humility.