There are a lot of things we don't want to know about the people we love.
I think even though he [Nelson Mandela] was feted and praised as he was, he always was at pains to say, I'm a human being.
Struggles only move forward when decent men and women step forward and say, 'enough is enough and no more. '
Many people theorize poverty, but so many elements of poverty, individually, for most people who theorize about poverty would be really difficult to even comprehend the individual things. Just take homelessness. If you are homeless, what does it mean not to have a post box where people can contact you; what does it mean not knowing where you're going to sleep at the end of the day; what does it mean not having a place where you can store what little you might possess. So dealing with homelessness in itself is a huge thing for most people who are commentators [on] or benefactors to poverty.
A movement only becomes a movement of substance, size, and power when the artists say 'we want to add our voice. '
Investing one cent more in oil, coal and gas is investing in the death of society, and the in the death of our children.
The reality is today most of our political leaders want to be treated as gods and semi-gods, from the security details to the fuss around them and so on.
Having studied biology really helped me a lot because I quickly understand how biological systems work, and how they fail, and the tragedy of when they fail, because we are dealing with life systems, and when we hear that a species has become extinct, or is threatened, you realize that this could mean that this species will disappear from the face of the earth forever! So that understanding really gives you energy to do something to save it.
How long do small girls play with their dolls? As long as they are not married and do not live with their husbands. After marriage they put the dolls away in a box. What further need is there of worshipping the image after the vision of God?
That folk music led to learning to play, and making things up led to what turns out to be the most lucrative part of the music business - writing, because you get paid every time that song gets played.
So we reach into the raging chaos, and we cling to it, and we tell ourselves it has meaning, and that the world is good, and we are not evil, and we will all go home in the end.