Perpetual spring, the flare of adventure in the blood, the impulse of men who packed Virgil with their bean-bags on the overland journey, conspired~ to make San Francisco a city of artists.

Like gluttony or drunkenness, hatred seems an agreeable vice when you practice it yourself, but disgusting when observed in others.

There's a sweet nirvana, Stirring on a jazzy, North Beach night

You can choose to be pitiful or you can choose to be powerful, but you cannot at the same time, be both.

Raising kids is part joy and part guerrilla warfare.

Opportunity starts with a great education.

You don't stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running.

Denial is a save now, pay later scheme.

I like John Kerry. I think he's intellectually curious and very thoughtful. I think he's deeply committed on issues like the environment. I think he's an internationalist, which I am.

A myth doesn't have to be real to be true.

Who invented the human heart, I wonder? Tell me, and then show me the place where he was hanged.

It's easy. [Black man] is - he's separate already. The fact that you have Harlem, the fact that you have the Negro ghetto and the so-called Negro slum, he's already separate.

You’ve got to visualize where you’re headed and be very clear about it. Take a polaroid picture of where you’re going to be in a few years.