I think the obstacle for women is that their lives are intertwined with the lives of men. Change at the very deepest level of one's daily life and one's being is required if women are to be really equal.

I think the imagination helps us move out of the purely oppositional mentality and see the world in a richer and more variegated way.

Disgust relies on moral obtuseness. It is possible to view another human being as a slimy slug or a piece of revolting trash only if one has never made a serious good-faith attempt to see the world through that person’s eyes or to experience that person’s feelings. Disgust imputes to the other a subhuman nature. How, by contrast, do we ever become able to see one another as human? Only through the exercise of imagination.

Business leaders love the humanities because they know that to innovate you need more than rote knowledge. You need a trained imagination.

As we tell stories about the lives of others, we learn how to imagine what another creature might feel in response to various events. At the same time, we identify with the other creature and learn something about ourselves.

I think we need government to play a part in having a health policy that makes nursing care available for the increasing numbers who are going to need it.

You can’t really change the heart without telling a story.