To be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing.

Freedom is choosing your responsibility. It's not having no responsibilitie s; it's choosing the ones you want.

Books ARE a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.

What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?

This is the time for every artist in every genre to do what he or she does loudly and consistently. It doesn't matter to me what your position is. You've got to keep asserting the complexity and the originality of life, and the multiplicity of it, and the facets of it. This is about being a complex human being in the world, not about finding a villain. This is no time for anything else than the best that you've got.

We mistook violence for passion, indolence for leisure, and thought recklessness was freedom.

When a child walks in the room, your child or anybody else’s child, do your eyes light up? That’s what they’re looking for.