America is perhaps excessively mobile in the sense that there is sometimes not enough stability in communities. Dynamism in the economy is not necessarily the "be all and end all".

Politicians and bureaucrats are no different from the rest of us. They will maximize their incentives just like everybody else.

How would the US be different today if people coming off the boat were greeted with a welfare check instead of a shovel?

Politics is a romantic search for the good and the true and the beautiful.

If politicians get money to spend and don't have to be responsible for taxation, then of course that will bias their attitude toward more spending as opposed to cutting back on spending.

Clearly, I am not an anarchist. Philosophically, I might be, but I think in practical terms.

Our groanings which cannot be uttered rise to Him and tell Him better than words how dependent we are upon Him.

I was a high-school teacher. I am a strong advocate for women's rights, and I'm not a woman.

She was the kind of person who would rather light a candle than curse the darkness.

I think our trade policies, for many, many years, have been a disaster. They have benefited corporate America at the expense of working people.

Being strong does not mean that you never fall down, but that whenever you fall, you get up again.

Science is showing us that we are even more connected to each other than we ever realized.

The thing that inspires me most is reading and just observing the people around me. I think those are the two things that make me want to write.

How my relationship with my parents influenced my writing, really not at all. My dad was a mechanic, my mom a nurse.

I always say the best Thai restaurant in Dubai is my home.

If I didn't mould my reality then I'd still be in the ghetto where people like me are supposed to stay. You have to dream your way out of the nightmare.