Music is a wind that blows away the years, memories, and fear, that crouching animal I carry inside me.

Peace requires everyone to be in the circle - wholeness, inclusion.

Writing is like making love. Don't worry about the orgasm, just concentrate on the process.

Giving women education, work, the ability to control their own income, inherit and own property, benefits the society. If a woman is empowered, her children and her family will be better off. If families prosper, the village prospers, and eventually so does the whole country.

Most people feel younger than their age, but the culture values youth, success, beauty, productivity. There is no space in this culture for older people.

People come from internally, from other places in the United States, but also displaced people from other parts of the world. They come here. If you walk in the streets of San Francisco, you hear all the languages. You smell all the foods. You listen to the music from everywhere. There's great diversity.

The fastest-growing population in the United States is the older people, because we are living much longer, healthier lives. The problem is, individuals often don't have the resources to take care of older people as they age. This is something that is happening, and we have to deal with it. It was happening also in my life.