I hate when people say, "Have fun at the press preview." Fun is talking to you.

Where men come to and women come together most intimately in sexuality in the home has become suffused with violence.

One of our biggest problems in terms of effectiveness is that we have hopes, but our opposition has interests. We measure everything against our hopes, including politicians that we are voting for or choosing amongst. We don't measure up to our hopes ourselves.

What we have been raised to think of as inevitable - division and hierarchy, monotheism and nation states - actually accounts for less than 10 percent of human history.

Women can be vivacious. We are allowed more varieties of facial expression and gestures. Men must be rocklike.

Religion is often politics made sacred.

Most writers write to say something about other people - and it doesn't last. Good writers write to find out about themselves - and it lasts forever.