Anthony Bourdain // "I used to believe that the human race as a whole was basically a few steps above wolves. That given the slightest change in circumstances, we would all, sooner or later, tear each other to shreds. That we were, at root, self-interested, cowardly, envious and potentially dangerous in groups. I have since come to believe...after many meals with many different people in many, many different places...that though there is no shortage of people who would do us harm, we are essentially good. That the world is, in fact, filled with mostly good and decent people who are simply doing the best they can. Everybody, it turns out, is proud of their food (when they have it). They enjoy sharing it with others (if they can). They love their children. They like a good joke... Sitting at the table has allowed me a privileged perspective and access that others, looking principally for 'the story,' do not, I believe, always get. People feel free, with a goofy American guy who has expressed interest only in their food and what they do for fun, to tell stories about themselves...to let their guard down, to be and to reveal, on occasion, their truest selves... People, wherever they live, are not statistics. They are not abstractions... I’m not saying that sitting down with people and sharing a plate is the answer to world peace. Not by a long shot. But it can’t hurt."
Charles Bukowski // "They say that hell is crowded, yet, when you’re in hell, you always seem to be alone. And you can’t tell anyone when you’re in hell or they’ll think you’re crazy and being crazy is being in hell and being sane is hellish too. Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it and nothing much bothers them after that. I mean, things like missing a meal, going to jail, wrecking your car, or even the idea of death itself. When you ask them, 'How are things?' They’ll always answer, 'Fine, just fine…' Once you’ve been to hell and back, that’s enough, it’s the greatest satisfaction known to man. Once you’ve been to hell and back, you don’t look behind you when the floor creaks and the sun is always up at midnight and things like the eyes of mice or an abandoned tire in a vacant lot can make you smile, once you’ve been to hell and back."
Bruce Lee // "The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest."
Tupac Shakur // "A lot of people...have a problem being true to themselves. They have a problem looking into the mirror and looking directly into their own souls. The reason I can...walk around, the reason I am who I am today is because I can look directly into my face and find my soul."
Martin Luther King Jr. // "A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution."
Muhammad Ali // "Truly great people in history never wanted to be great for themselves. All they wanted was the chance to do good for others and be close to God."
Nina Simone // "My thing...what I hope to do all the time, is to be so completely myself...that my audiences, people who meet me, are confronted. They’re confronted with what I am, inside and out, as honest as I can be. And this way they have to see things about themselves, immediately."
Noam Chomsky // "If you go to one demonstration and then go home, that's something, but the people in power can live with that. What they can't live with is sustained pressure that keeps building, organizations that keep doing things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it better the next time."
Howard Zinn // "Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience… Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves…and the grand thieves are running the country."
James Baldwin // "This is the charged, the dangerous moment, when everything must be re-examined, must be made new, when nothing at all can be taken for granted."
Toni Morrison // "Don’t you understand that the people who do this thing, who practice racism, are bereft. There is something distorted about the psyche. It’s a huge waste and it’s a corruption and a distortion. It’s like it’s a profound neurosis, that nobody examines for what it is... If the racist white person, I don’t mean the person who is examining his consciousness...doesn’t understand that he or she is also a race, it’s also constructed, it’s also made, and it also has some kind of serviceability... But when you take it away... If I take your race away...there you are, all strung out and all you got is your little self. And what is that? What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart? Do you still like yourself?... If you can only be tall because someone else is on their knees, then you have a serious problem."
William S. Burroughs // "Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biological state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole."
