When people make my country look bad, I can't stand it.

Human beings should not be reduced to a state to where they almost get into a fight over a small bar of soap.

For me, speaking to anyone - on a stage, in an elevator - I am looking for impact and connection. The same goes for writing.

I could fall in love with a cruel desert that kills without passion, a canyon full of scorpions, one thousand blinding arctic storms, a century sealed in a cave, a river of molten salt flowing down my throat. But never with you.

I recycle and try to be nice to the earth. But flora and fauna have always interested me, and it is because of so many years of summer camp and growing up in DC with Rock Creek Park fairly near me, or Glover Park; I lived in Glover Park for a while and that park was in my backyard.

Jazz music is as American as it gets, and so is the U.S. Postal Service. A Miles Davis stamp is a perfect marriage of two great American institutions.

The Ruts were a great punk rock band from England whose songs were as excellent as their time together was short.