And I knew that it was better to live out one's absurdity than to die for that of others.

For, like almost everyone else in our country, I started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action, but now, after first being 'for' society and then 'against' it, I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities. What a phrase - still it's a good phrase and a good view of life, and a man shouldn't accept any other; that much I've learned underground. Until some gang succeeds in putting the world in a strait jacket, its definition is possibility.

The thing to do is to exploit the meaning of the life you have.

Meaning grows in the mind, but the shape and form of the act remains.

It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.

If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit.

Man's hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove.