Don't despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret.

I'm conscious of a series of circles working its way through my life. And at this particular moment I have come round to the beginning of my writing cycle. It begins with poetry. There's hardly a day that goes past on which I don't write poetry.

The strange thing about Africa is how past, present and future come together in a kind of rough jazz, if you like.

The acknowledged legislators of the world take the world as given. They dislike mysteries, for mysteries cannot be coded, or legislated, and wonder cannot be made into law. And so these legislators police the accepted frontiers of things.

I was in art school, and we had all these random classes. We'd listen to a lot of Bollywood. I'd listen to Spanish music - and I don't even speak Spanish, but Hector Lavoe is amazing - we listened to French music like Edith Piaf. She's tight. I like cool vocal inflections; I like cool sounds. I pretty much listen to anything I think is good.

Mitt Romney knows America's prosperity didn't happen because our government simply spent more. It happened because our people used their own money to open a business.

Anyone with a cursory knowledge of American history knows that unchecked spying undermines democracy and public trust.

There is a holy, mistaken zeal in politics, as well as in religion. By persuading others, we convince ourselves.