We need leaders, we ourselves need to lead from a place that has the audacity to believe that we ourselves can extend the fundamental assumption that all men are created equal to every, man woman and child on this planet. And we need the humility to recognize that we cannot do it alone.

What is the cost of not daring? What is the cost of not trying?

When I first went to Africa, I thought that I was personally going to save the continent, if not the world.

Every day we have a choice. We can take the easier road, the more cynical road, which is a road sometimes based on a dream of a past that never was, fear of each other, distancing and blame, or we can take the much more difficult path, the road of transformation, transcendence, compassion, and love, but also accountability and justice.

Traditional charity and aid are never going to solve the problems of poverty.

My whole life has been spent with people who have taken every knock in the world. No advantages. Yet they greet you with a big smile, they give you what they have, and they keep coming back. They are the fighters.

I wrote 'The Blue Sweater' to inspire more people to become engaged in working to solve the problems of global poverty.