The oil dinosaurs want to win so badly in my home state because what happens here matters everywhere. The nation often follows where California goes.

[On the] question of why we might want to look at images even more than the real thing: I think there is some quality when you look at an image of, not only seeing this thing, whether it's the horse or the sky, but you are seeing somebody point at it and say, Look!

Walking allows us to be in our bodies and in the world without being made busy by them.

We talk about politicians being in public life, but they seldom appear in the public space where everyone is free to appear as a citizen.

Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky.... hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency.

A lot of people think of political activism as some grim duty, and I think we do have an obligation to be citizens - to be informed and engaged.

No one is born a writer; literacy is a peculiar mode of being, but I was all about stories from a very early age, before reading.