The world spends $40 billion a year on pet food.

A few countries like Sri Lanka and Honduras have led the way in slashing maternal mortality.

The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.

We all might ask ourselves why we tune in to these more trivial matters and tune out when it comes to Darfur

The conflict in Darfur could escalate to where we're seeing 100,000 victims per month

There are other issues I have felt more emotionally connected to, like China, where I lived and worked for some time. I was living there when Tiananmen Square erupted

While Americans have heard of Darfur and think we should be doing more there, they aren't actually angry at the president about inaction

It really is quite remarkable that Darfur has become a household name. I am gratified that's the case.

The north of the Central African Republic is now a war zone, with rival armed bands burning villages, kidnapping children, robbing travelers and killing people with impunity.

The greatest threat to extremism isn't drones firing missiles, but girls reading books.

You will be judged in years to come by how you responded to genocide on your watch.

So I fight for a Father who I never loved, against a brother that I did. I defend an empire that never wanted me against an army that would have taken me in a heartbeat.

I don't travel to learn about the world. I travel for the joy of traveling.

In any relationship, when you go through any big change, you struggle to find your new constellation, your new ground. It takes a while to determine what the new relationship between you is.

I find it interesting that many of the people who want to restrict fossil fuels live in well-developed countries where abundant and affordable energy is readily available.

I'm doing what I love. I'm enjoying the perks of the job-the travel. I am having a great time being a shape shifter and I'm really getting a kick out of it. I love my job.

. . . it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are-until the poem-nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt.

I would show up at a party for Al Qaeda if you said there's going to be a dinner.

I have never stopped considering not becoming a writer.

Hold your head high, and your middle finger higher.

The fate of the paranormal is to become the normal as our horizons of understanding expand.