Take away the miseries and you take away some folks' reason for living.

The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible

Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I've seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges.

(M)aybe we too busy being flowers or fairies or strawberries instead of something honest and worthy of respect . . . you know . . . like being people.

Revolution begins with the self, in the self.... We'd better take the time to fashion revolutionary selves, revolutionary lives, revolutionary relationships. Mouth don't win the war.

Writing is a legitimate way, an important way, to participate in the empowerment of the community that names me.

The only proper mask to wear in life is your own damn face.

TAKE HEART TO FLAT OUT DECIDE TO BE WELL AND STRIDE INTO THE FUTURE, SANE AND WHOLE

The job of the writer is to make revolution irresistible.

When you dream, you dialogue with aspects of yourself that normally are not with you in the daytime and you discover that you know a great deal more than you thought you did.

Write a lot and hit the streets. A writer who doesn't keep up with what's out there ain't gonna be out there.

Just because you love someone, doesn't mean you have to be involved with them. Love is not a bandage to cover wounds.

He was being about as protective as a can-opener.

The sky is blue today, Max, and there is a big long cloud, and it's stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun islike a yellow hole. . .

It gives me such hope that each one of us can contribute to make this world a better place.

When it comes to improv, Specifics beget specifics.

I'm tired of everybody. Please forgive me.

Irving Berlin has no place in American music -- he is American music.

Writing is the perfect balance between self-confidence and self-doubt, with a bit of self-delusion thrown in.

For me, Twitter is a public persona. I don't interact. It's a lousy form for conversation and opinion, but a wonderful propaganda and sloganeering tool. I use it as a one-way street.

The gods look in pleasure on penitent sinners.