I'm interested in finding new and more humane modes of safety, and in exposing the arbitrary and superficial protections that have failed us.

Wherever something is "pinned down" there's a little hole - at least one - more likely many.

Given our examination of the behavior of our police forces at this moment the question of protection has an extra resonance, yes?

If we take seriously the idea that the stories we want to hear shape the stories we can (and want to, and are allowed to) tell, then the canon emerges as something to examine very carefully.

"Influence" is itself influenced, coming from an Italian word for the outbreak of a disease (influenza, outbreak). Influence is that which flows across - permeates - the boundaries of the self.

It is worth asking who decides what's an "obsession" and where it differs from meditation or the kind of deep dwelling on a subject we see in philosophy or the work of Robert Wilson, for instance?

Admitting how ill we are, how deep the damage goes, how constantly the abuse cycle is repeated and how horribly we have failed those who most deserve our care and protection.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (whose mother died ten days after she was born) wrote a novel that anticipates Semmelweis's discovery and serves as a parable for the destructive power of decaying matter.

One might say that "Torch Song" is, in part, about the urgency of the effort to pin things down and what wild dart throwing that desire leads to.

23. With God, even when nothing is happening...something is happening.

The past in retrospect holds manifold disenchantments failures and even tragedies and yet the worse may be forgotten and the best held fast.

Life is about challenges and how we face up to them and the attitude we take into every day life so hopefully we'll be able to motivate people to do more with their life.

Most modern homes are simply uninhabitable without electricity - you couldn't flush the toilet without it. It's a huge dependency situation.

You have not fulfilled every duty unless you have fulfilled that of being pleasant.

My fear was like a stray dog, roving the neighborhood of my life, looking for a new source of worry.

Former US president, drug baron and pedophile, George Herbert Walker Bush, incidentally, is mentioned more than any other person in my experience in relation to shape-shifting.

The most difficult job is the one that you never get started on.

The global work of the United Nations is not without reason compared to that of a family - striving for a common goal in concert with all members for a better future.

My parents were opera singers and voice teachers, so growing up, I admired musicians and dancers.