I went to Iraq because I wanted to see what one year of occupation had done to Iraqi society, and I went to the West Bank and Gaza Strip because I wanted to see what three generations of occupation had done to Palestinian society. I found a lot more hopelessness and despair in Palestine.

San Francisco has always been a haven for misfits and weirdos. I'm both of those, which is why I came here.

Whenever people go out of their way to help other people - there's power and beauty in our diversity.

It's also hard for me to understand growing up not knowing where I came from. I searched for my parents - I started when I was twenty; I found both my mother and my father when I was twenty-two. Trying to catch up on twenty-two years that we can never get back, trying to reconcile that - that's a hard thing for me.

Today we are in a war against war - music is our power.

The U.S. has historically been the world's largest contributor to climate change.

Don't settle for something that's not great. Don't feel like having a relationship that is not serving your needs is more important than having a relationship with yourself.