Great drama is great questions or it is nothing but technique. I could not imagine a theater worth my time that did not want to change the world. Arthur Miller p. 9

Words can sometimes, in the moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds. Elie Wiesel p. 9

Once in East Africa, on the shores of an ancient lake, I sat alone and suddenly it struck me what community is. It is gathering around a fire and listening to someone tell us a story. Bill Moyers p. 11

Let the streams of life flow in peace.
Turn from violence.
Learn to think for a long time how to change the world
How to make it better to live in.

Quetzalcoatl p. 21

You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can’t, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world… The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, they you can change it. James Baldwin p. 24

Understanding is another name for love; love is another name for understanding. Thich Nhat Hanh p. 53

Write a little every day, without hope, without despair. Isak Dinesen p. 75

A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than for others. Thomas Mann p. 76

We write to discover what we think. Joan Didion p. 112

In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. Baba Dioum p. 183

A good poem can set its listener adrift in a small raft under a vast night sky of stars. Jane Hirshfield p. 229