It's part of a writer's profession as it's part of a spy's profession to prey on the community to which he's attached to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters whether it's his readership or his spy masters. And I think that both professions are perhaps rather lonely.

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create to overcome to endure to transform to love and to be greater than our suffering.

It is all very well to copy what one sees but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity it is the power to that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination as I try to do.

First comes thought then organization of that thought into ideas and plans then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning as you will observe is in your imagination.

My hope is that we will turn Greece into maybe the most transparent country in the world with everything on the web.

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

I think films have to reach people and really grab them. That's what I hope to do when I make a film - to get under your skin and really make you think about something and have a transporting time that takes you somewhere.

In the kind of world we have today transformation of humanity might well be our only real hope for survival.

When one takes action for others one's own suffering is transformed into the energy that can keep one moving forward a light of hope illuminating a new tomorrow for oneself and others is kindled.

In our recovery package we put new standards of accountability and transparency which we hope will now apply.

Corporations consumers and citizens must begin acting in concert to create a powerful third pillar of social transformation if we hope to meet the social challenges we currently face with equal force. This begins with corporations that choose to alter how they practice capitalism in two ways to serve the greater good.

But maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language in the most extravagant sense.

A radical inner transformation and rise to a new level of consciousness might be the only real hope we have in the current global crisis brought on by the dominance of the Western mechanistic paradigm.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement not a hope not a wish but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

Imagine if you had baseball cards that showed all the performance stats for your people: batting averages home runs errors ERAs win/loss records. You could see what they did well and poorly and call on the right people to play the right positions in a very transparent way.

I've seen the greatest actors in the world transcendent talents who can't find a home.

For those who have come here illegally they might have a transition time to allow them to set their affairs in order. And then go back home and get in line with everybody else. And if they get in line and they apply to become a citizen and get a green card they will be treated like everybody else.

Happy happy Christmas that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!

You never know what events are going to transpire to get you home.

The Middle East has the highest unemployment percentage of any region in the world we have the largest youth cohort of history coming into the market place that frustration does translate into the political sphere when people are hungry and without jobs.

I believe that we must maintain pride in the knowledge that the actions we take based on our own decisions and choices as individuals link directly to the magnificent challenge of transforming human history.

Asking the author of historical novels to teach you about history is like expecting the composer of a melody to provide answers about radio transmission.