“The best men in all ages keep classic traditions alive.”

“Never build your emotional life on the weaknesses of others.”

“Surrealism is the triumph of form over content.” 

“Taking to the road—by which I mean letting the road take you—changed who I thought I was. The road is messy in the way that real life is messy. It leads us out of denial and into reality, out of theory and into practice, out of caution and into action, out of statistics and into stories—in short, out of our heads and into our hearts.” 

A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.

Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.

“Sanity is a madness put to good uses.”

“Because adventure starts the moment I leave my door.” 

“I’ve learned from these events that self-esteem plays as much a part in the destiny of nations as it does in the lives of individuals; that self-hatred leads to the need either to dominate or to be dominated; that citizens who refuse to obey anything but their own conscience can transform their countries; in short, that self-esteem is the basis of any real democracy.” 

“YOU CANNOT THINK YOURSELF INTO RIGHT LIVING. YOU LIVE YOURSELF INTO RIGHT THINKING

“I began to understand with a terrible sureness that we teach what we need to learn and write what we need to know.” 

“It's important for someone who could play the game - and win - to say: 'the game isn't worth shit.” 

“Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” 

“We are so different, yet so much the same.” 

“Wherever I go, bookstores are still the closest thing to a town square.” 

“I worshipped dead men for their strength, forgetting I was strong.” 

“The driver, an old Irish woman, the only such cabbie I’ve ever seen, turned to us at a traffic light and said the immortal words, “Honey, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament!” 

“We are all trained to be female impersonators.” 

“What we’re told about this country is way too limited by generalities, sound bites, and even the supposedly enlightened idea that there are two sides to every question. In fact, many questions have three or seven or a dozen sides.” 

“I've noticed that great political leaders are energized by conflict. I'm energized by listening to people's stories and trying to figure out shared solutions. That's the work of an organizer.” 

“We learn most where we know the least.” 

“I'm also now immune to politicians who say, "I've traveled the length and breadth of this great land, and I know..." I've traveled more than any of them, and I don't know.” 

“I can go on the road - because I can come home. I come home - because I'm free to leave. Each way of being is more valued in the presence of the other.” 

“Perhaps our need to escape into media is a misplaced desire for the journey.”