We need to infuse politics with ideas like compassion and empathy, and a sense that we live in an interdependent world.

Gandhi saw how people have to re-think their own individuality before engaging in political activity. Otherwise they're just playing the game that the adversary has set out.

In America, you don't even have proper holidays. It's really one of the most prosperous slave societies in history. People work their asses off all year long and get two weeks off! It's incredible.

The people who encouraged me weren't necessarily writers or readers themselves. They were people who were just pleased to see me devote my life to reading and writing.

I found it really disturbing to see a novelist writing a diatribe about Islam and Muslim radical extremists, blurring the distinction between the two.

The idea that human beings can make history, that is something quite unique to the modern West.

The asymmetries of power that have shaped relations between the West and the rest of the world also exist in the realm of literary criticism.

Most suffering is human-made and avoidable. It's mostly in your head.

Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee great literature.

In the modern world, nationalism remains a very important force. We delude ourselves into thinking that globalization has made all of that redundant and that everyone just wants to be like America.

I think what's important and extraordinarily practical about Buddhism, is that it offers very concrete methods for people to work with.

And all the best words together couldn't hold the happiness.

I think my mission is to be in business so I can create a positive impact that will uplift the others around me. (p. 78)

Men and women can absolutely be friends, and that's what we need to be. Part of the problem is that we aren't friends enough. Our relationships are negotiations, and that is not friendship.

Washington's defeat in 1754 was followed by active military preparations on both sides.

In a world where England is finished and dead: I do not wish to live.

The queen of virtues is the recognition of one's own flaws.

Go on being uncommercial. There's a lot of money in it.

The frontal cortex is an incredibly interesting part of the brain - ours is proportionately bigger and/or more complex than in any other species.

The Supreme Court has only granted citizenship to the children born to legal immigrants, not illegal.

You should see my baby pictures. My cheeks hung off my face like water balloons. You can imagine how often I was teased.