What is of most moment of compassion is not feelings of pity but feelings of togetherness.

I turn a lot of stuff down - big, big movies, the kind I wouldn't want to go to the cinema to see.

I don't think that fundamentalism has anything to do with Jesus Christ. They call themselves Christians, but if that's Christian, count me out. Fundamentalism is built on fear and greed. They're telling you to give them your money otherwise you're going to hell.

Compassion is not pity ... compassion never considers an object as weak or inferior. Compassion, one might say, works from a strength born of awareness of shared weakness, and not from someone else's weakness. And from the awareness of the mutuality of us all. Thus to put down another as in pity is to put down oneself.

Our self-expression is meant to be a manifestation of the silence of our hearts.

Im not really a tropical paradise kind of person.

The system is not working. That is how a paradigm shift begins: the established way of seeing the world no longer functions.