I've written a book on gangs, taught a course on gangs at Occidental.

The peace and justice movement has to expand and not run away from the plight of gang members.

I think people are entitled to march without a permit. When you have a few hundred thousand people on the street you have permission.

Most centrist Democrats... try to distance themselves from controversies that recall the 1960s. There are journalistic centrists as well, who avoid hard truths for the sake of acceptance and legitimacy.

I'm not ready to give you a clear answer on whether electoral politics holds any particular hope for progressives. It would mean that nothing I did ever mattered.

The issue of civil rights was too much for the establishment to handle. One of the chapters of history that's least studied by historians is the 300 to 500 riots in the U.S. between 1965 and 1970.

Fonda was neither wrong nor unconscionable in what she said and did in North Vietnam.

If you look at the data, the inner city that was the riot zone lost 55,000 jobs in the ten years from 1992 to 2002, instead of gaining a surplus of 50,000.

I've written a book on gangs, taught a course on gangs at Occidental.

Twice the Republicans in the California legislature tried to block my seating because of my trips to Hanoi.

I don't think I'll ever fully get over losing the city council seat. I don't know how that happened. But it was less than 1 percent out of 50,000 votes. I'd put in six or seven years into changing L.A.

Already this war on gangs in California is taking money from universities to build prisons, and the universities have some clout.

The politicians of New York have everything that is necessary to make proper decisions and they will have to live with what happens afterwards. The worst scenario is the politicians covering their eyes and turning it over to the FBI.

Why should American atrocities be merely unsettling, but a trip to Hanoi unconscionable?

Communism is one of the options that can improve peoples lives.

It takes a certain kind of bravery and a certain kind of goodness to be able to not just put your destructive past behind you but to continue to take harassment from society and from police for your past.

His herding instinct is so strong that he confuses tractors on a baseball field for sheep. He was hospitalized twice. Once by a line drive and once for attacking a tractor tread.

We ourselves are imbued with urgency, yet the message of our society is' that there is no viable alternative to the present.

When a man tries to communicate with an animal, there's a relationship between them, and you generally find this between the dog and his master.

Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.

As one grows weaker one is less susceptible to suffering. There is less hurt because there is less to hurt.

From the late David Broder on down, the most powerful and influential of the great Washington columnists and journalists tend to cultivate the driest, least lively voices possible.

Mum has always been a huge anti-war activist. She would go off to protest and get arrested. I have her passion, but it is not for politics. I am much more interested in psychology. It's more my job and my natural inclination.

I could live in a sari; I was born to wear a sari.

My father is an acupuncturist, and the way he practices is very free. For me, he's like an artist. He started to do acupuncture when it wasn't so accepted. His spirit and outlook inspire me.

Abundance comes in many forms, do not limit your abundance by trying to control how it will flow, just know that it will come.

I like being in movies that have a great story. I'm not so interested in being a Hollywood star. It's a job, you know. When you wake up at six in the morning every day for a week, it feels like hard work.

I totally remove myself from any costumes, wardrobe, any choreography. I could care less about that stuff.

We have investigative staff who are charged by law and this committee under the Constitution of the United States has a responsibility, taxpayers' money, and an agency which we fund from the government, they bought weapons, we believe and we think that - I don't know who did what.

I train for whatever happens. I'm prepared for wherever the fight goes.

I graduated from high school early so I could move to New York to do 'A Little Night Music' out of the New York City Opera.

To triple the growth of your organization, triple the growth of your people.

Jay-Z is as politically correct as some of the politicians. He's safe. There's points when you're acquiring financing, you make adjustments. He's made those adjustments. It's his choice. For me, it's not a necessity.

Technologists and futurists call the mashup of digital info and physical space 'blended reality.'

I never built houses, only apartments.

I still enjoy the tactile sensation of holding a book. But when I need to read fast for work, I use the Kindle App on my iPad.

Education is not the only answer and it's certainly not the immediate solution. At best, it's a necessary, but not sufficient response to widening inequality.

Are there infinitely varying with each individual inbred forces of Good and Evil in all of us deep down below the reach of mortal encouragement and mortal repression hidden Good and hidden Evil both alike at the mercy of the liberating opportunity and the sufficient temptation

I guess the first big name I worked with was Sissy Spacek, and that was really interesting just because she's so incredible and I learned so much from just watching her. But she's also so unassuming that I loved working with her. It wasn't like working with a star, it was Sissy. Not a big deal.

People in my books tend to get their just deserts, even if not at the hands of the police.

My mission as a writer is to give my readers hope to carry with them, and to promote a belief that they can do anything they set their minds to.

It proved to me, though, that comedy is so much harder.