“No one can give us power. If we aren’t part of the process of taking it, we won’t be strong enough to use it.”

If you really want to be lonely, get married.

But somewhere within each of us, buried at varying depths depending on the age and degree of neglect or abuse, shame or coercion we endured, there is a resistant, daydreaming, rebellious, creative, unique child — a true self who is waiting.

Empathy is the most radical of human emotions.

Helping begins with listening.

The origins of violence against women by men are not biological. If that were the case, it would exist in every culture. And it doesn’t exist in every culture.

So whatever you want to do, just do it… Making a damn fool of yourself is absolutely essential.

Women tend to be conservative in youth and get more radical as they get older because they lose power with age. So, if a young woman is not a feminist, I say, just wait.

Law and justice are not always the same. When they aren’t, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it.

There is a naive belief that injustice only had to be pointed out in order to be cured.

Clinging to the past is the problem. Embracing change is the answer.

Behave like everything you do matters.

What would happen if even one generation were raised with respect and without violence?

when pain has been intertwined with love and closeness, it’s very difficult to believe that love and closeness can be experienced without pain.

By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God.

There are many ways of supporting gender equality, from something as simple as paid sick leave and flexible work hours to attributing an economic value to all care-giving, and making that amount tax deductible.

The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.

I’d rather do a really good small part than a really bad big part.

Or people say, ‘Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.’ The work is to make it look effortless. That’s the hard part.

I’ve read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, ‘Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.’ I don’t want to be part of that.

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.

Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.

I had my first ‘Survivor Series’ in 1991 and I was fortunate enough to be an instrumental part of the shows I was on.

The only way to stay sharp is to do live shows. There is no part-time comedy.