In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

There is no civilization that did not begin with art, Whether it was drawing a line in the sand, painting a cave or dancing.

Your life is already artful-waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art.

If we had no language we'd have nothing.

the hopelessness that comes from knowing too little and feeling too much (so brittle, so dry he is in danger of the reverse: feeling nothing and knowing everything)

For a long time I was convinced that the conflict between Jewish people and black people in this country was a media event.

Most of the really good literature I've read in my life was political, meaning it was important - about something going on in the history of the world - or contemporary.