I cannot speak adequately, especially considering my race and my privilege, to the violence of the NYPD or the police in racial terms. That is something that I cannot speak adequately to.

I think that by telling the truth and by attempting to be a good citizen, somehow I've ended up playing with fire. And that's really scary.

Jail is just another micro-society. It just happens that here, the problems are far more out in the open, we don't live with the facades of lies that democracy or capitalism creates for us.

We're just trying to figure out what being a good citizen is, what participating in a democracy is, what taking responsibility for being an American citizen in a global context means to us.

You can't put people in jail for having mental disorders. You can't do that, and they should not be held there. They need rehabilitative therapy.

I really don't feel good about leaving my house anymore. I don't feel really good about being anywhere in New York City alone anymore.

I think in short order all of us need to act like we are citizens with not only rights, but also duties.

I can be all pissed off at the oppression of the state, but what does that really mean? Well, it's the tacit consent of a public.

My town was all-white and shut down Section 8 housing because they didn't want black people to move into the town. And I thought that was wrong - duh.

I had a sense that my mother was struggling, when I was a kid, working twelve hour days, making $12,000 a year with two kids in a trailer park.

I felt like there wasn't a political discourse. I felt like there was just one set of values, and any one set of values was wrong; that there should at least be room for conversation.

A poem often begins in the midst of wonderful wandering thoughts that are eager to open wings to fly in the beautiful blue sky of imagination.

She had every right to be harsh, mean, and independent. Every damn right. And yet he had a feeling that she needed care more than anyone else in the world.

A sprinkle of last-minute despair gives a soul an agreeably earthy aftertaste.

When you're playing music through the streets of London at 2 o'clock in the morning, there's something so cool and magical about that. It takes you to a special place very quickly.

It is superfluous to be humble on one's own behalf; so many people are willing to do it for one.

Some people are into bondage... and some people are into crossdressing.. . and some people are into Coldplay. It's okay, I don't mind being a fetish.

The world is fed by greed.

I was born in high heels and I've worn them ever since.

You can't hate yourself happy, You can't criticize yourself thin, You can't shame yourself wealthy. Real change begins with self-love and self care.

I've been called the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly.