When people conclude that all is futile, then the absurd becomes the norm.

Our job as writers and thinkers in the time is how to bring about the occasions that let people have that first-person experience - or the metaphoric experience that allows them to see human continuity as opposed to total threat, total willingness to do violence.

The point is, you have an ethnic heritage and you have a human heritage. Your human heritage includes everything of human value.

You can meet a young person who goes to school and is really enthusiastic, but if a sufficiently strong personality convinces them that this is a waste of time, that person might flunk out.

All of us are made up of the stories that we listen to, the ones we disagree with and the ones that we agree with.

Louis Armstrong, who learned to be in exquisite dress, came from the bottom, and he's not a trash can.

Getting to the pint where the other is not the enemy is a big leap.