A city always contains more than any inhabitant can know, and a great city always makes the unknown and the possible spurs to the imagination.

To be hopeful means to be uncertain about the future, to be tender toward possibilities, to be dedicated to change all the way down to the bottom of your heart.

I'm a big fan of the vigor of civil society, political engagement, and public life in many parts of Latin America.

Everyday life is a disaster, and disaster can liberate us.

I think that walking down the middle of the street with several thousand people who share your deepest beliefs is one of the best ways to take a walk.

To lose yourself: a voluptuous surrender, lost in your arms, lost to the world, utterly immersed in what is present so that its surroundings fade away. In Benjamin’s terms, to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery.

The poor have often been subversive just because they don't always believe their own depiction as brutes and loafers and leeches, and new economy is making lots more poor or recognize their fellowship with the insecurity of the poor, the portion of the population for whom the system does not work.