You need to be hyper-aware because it's your survival at stake.

I think in a sense this is a house that was built on a bad foundation. And the foundation was the Americans coming here and allowing the sacking, burning and plunder of Baghdad, for whatever reason.

We live in an extraordinary time, in which one still has the ability to mold opinion. Also, it's up for grabs. Perceptions are up for grabs in a way that it hasn't been before, which makes it really interesting. Societies that have always defined other aspects of human experience, or histories, try to hold on to it and try to find ways to continue to be the ones who do the interpreting.

It is important to know how influential people think and perceive their countrymen, let's say, especially when you are talking about people in power. I think it can be very revealing how they regard themselves and their relationship or their responsibility to their countrymen. That is vital for us all to know and in order to be able to judge them and evaluate them.

If you can find a way to confound people's prejudices, restore the humanity of people, individuals, you restore them to life.

That's what's terrible about wars when whole societies adopt an impulse of objectification. Everything becomes black and white.

Che is not just a potent figure of protest, but the idealistic, questioning kid who exists in every society and every time.