I have come to believe that our lives can be turned in a different direction, our minds adopt a different way of thinking, by some significant, though small event. That belief can be frightening, or exhilarating, depending on whether you just contemplate it or do something with it.

I always emphasize the historic role of people of color in organizing and protesting to achieve justice.

There has always been, and there is now, a profound conflict of interest between the people and the government of the United States.

People should go where they are not supposed to go, say what they are not supposed to say, and stay when they are told to leave.

They have the guns, we have the poets. Therefore, we will win.

The courtroom is one instance of the fact that while our society may be liberal and democratic in some large and vague sense, its moving parts, its smaller chambers--its classrooms, its workplaces, its corporate boardrooms, its jails, its military barracks--are flagrantly undemocratic, dominated by one commanding person or a tiny elite of power.

If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism?