You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way... people look at reality, then you can change it.

It comes as a great shock…to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance…has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, and although you are rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians are you.

I conceive of God, in fact, as a means of liberation and not a means to control others.

For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for whatthey become.

The trick is to love somebody.... If you love one person, you see everybody else differently.

You write in order to change the world ... if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.

A liberal: someone who thinks he knows more about your experience than you do.