Powerful people doing bad things LIKE cynical, despairing citizens.

Copenhagen has done a remarkable job creating streets that are focused on bicycles and pedestrians.

I think there's a gigantic generation gap in terms of how people understand the Internet and how much they think technology is an important factor in social change.

Optimism is a political act. Those who benefit from the status quo are perfectly happy for us to think nothing is going to get any better. In fact, these days, cynicism is obedience.

Urban retrofitting: creating different sorts of spaces and uses out of places that are already there.

If mass media, social isolation in the suburbs, alienating workplaces and long car commutes create a bunker mentality, the Internet does the opposite.

By looking at climate change as a clean energy generation problem, we're setting ourselves up not to solve it.

It's not just enough to survive. We've got to make something better than what we've got.

The denser places get, the lower the amount of energy people use to get around it.

We have to craft new political realities, not only in places like India, Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, but here at home as well. Another world is possible.

Cabbies in particular seem to like discussing the fate the Earth.

There is a difference between working hard to create a life that truly serves you and working hard to create a life that you’ve been told you should want.

Well don't demand the spotlight if you can't handle the attention.

Let Your Imagination Take Flight

Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.

I always thought that you could do worse than find yourself dying in the company of a devoted former student.

Beauty is about perception, not about make-up.

My first instrument is piano, I play some piano and guitar. So my solo music is more like real singer/songwriter type stuff.

I lived in a dictatorship in Brazil, and I was arrested three times. I felt in my flesh what it is to live under such a regime and experience deprivation of freedom.

If every Christian family brought in a child who needed a family we would put the foster care system out of business.

Running should be saved for the times when you're being chased.