You could perhaps better tell the story of a place by writing of a tiny village as a sort of prism into the bigger issues the culture was facing. It struck me as a better way to learn about a place, or at least a different way, than just going to interview the president. So I have often tried to tell the story of a place through people there. But I'm just amazed.

The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.

I think when hundreds of thousands of lives are on the line, you might have to set aside some principles.

Every year 3.1 million Indian children die before the age of 5, mostly from diseases of poverty like diarrhea.

There isn't a political price to be paid yet for doing nothing. People need to get upset with President Bush. People need to get upset with their Congressmen.

I think that [Donald] Trump is frankly a bigot. He has a racist history.

I think it's dangerous to be optimistic.