Girl, I got my mind. And what goes on in it. Which is to say, I got me...my lonely is mine.

I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies.

If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back—and I will.

It’s knowing what really matters, what it is you’re chasing – or avoiding – and what makes you feel alive that propels you into a place where your beautiful soul can shine.

One thing is that [Tibetans] should not give up hope. That's - even [if] it lasts a century. My discussions with the Dalai Lama always were about that.

It's bizarre, a punch in the face hurts less when you win than when you lose.

That's what I paint, I paint people. They're portraits, but you won't always be pleased with the way you look in my paintings. Which is fine, I guess. Unless you're buying it, and it's of your kid!

What happens when there is a conflict between the Scottish parliament, if it was established, and the Westminster parliament? Who is supreme?

Planning other people's actions means to prevent them from planning for themselves, means to deprive them of their essentially human quality, means enslaving them.

As much time as you put into it, that's what your achievements are going to be when you come out of it.

When push-off comes to shove-off, a man must have a reason to get out of bed in the mornings, something more than the threat of bedsores, at any rate.

I have three phobias ...: I hate going to bed, get up and hate hate being alone.