“Once I learned about grassroots organizing, I got so enamored with it because I thought ‘Wow this is the way you do it!’”

It’s important to realize that we all need to work together. With Weaving Movements, we are all interdependent and we all have to work together. If we could just realize that and understand that, we’ll keep our country strong.

As a youngster and being a Latina, you see so much injustice.

I had been a Girl Scout from the time I was 8 to the time I was 18 years old. I had belonged to my church organization and youth groups. But, you never really found a way that you could make a change.

When a group of people get together, it’s collective power. You know that you’re doing it for the good.

People would say ‘Who is a leader?’ A leader is a person that does the work. It’s very simple. It’s a personal choice for people who choose to put in their time and their commitment to do the work. It’s a personal choice.

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?

Exercise your right to vote.

I want to say to mothers out there, you know, take your children to marches. Take them to meetings because this is a way that they can become strong, and they understand what politics is all about because they are actually living it.

Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

In fact, the corporations are driving out the competition and it is not getting better, especially when they are not paying income taxes. Thank goodness for the social media out there, because we sure can’t count on the corporate media to get the word out.

As organizations, we have to find ways to create more opportunities, especially for our young people. A lot of corporations, they have to make opportunities for young people – create internships, for example, even if it’s only half-time.

People can take power over their communities and over their lives. Some people don’t realize they can do that. They think ‘It’s OK for other people, but I myself can’t do it.’ Hopefully, that will come out of the film.

I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.

As we’ve focused more on our food and where it comes from, people now have greater awareness of what’s being put onto our food, pesticides, labeling issues, and consumer health.

If we don’t have workers organized into labor unions, we’re in great peril of losing our democracy.

I had learnt Kathak for six years from the age of eight and did a foundation course from Kathak Kendra in Delhi. I was not fond of classical dance, but today, I’m glad my mom made me do it.

In fact, depending on how much you earn, you can afford to pay somebody to do almost anything you don’t like to do.

I guess I learnt to appreciate old Hindi-movie music from my dad and somewhere down the line picked up jazz as well.

The learned are envied by the foolish; rich men by the poor; chaste women by adulteresses; and beautiful ladies by ugly ones.

I learned some invaluable lessons in Nashville that apply to both farming and show business: Do not corner something you know is meaner than you; keep skunks of all kinds at a distance; if you forgive your enemies, it messes up their heads.

One thing I learned is that the mind, rather than being the master, should be the servant of the heart.

Whatever you learn will never go waste. It will be beneficial for me in future.

What good is a cow that neither gives milk nor conceives? Similarly, what is the value of the birth of a son if he becomes neither learned nor a pure devotee of the Lord?