"I'm frightened of the intellectualism that can insulate us from action and turn the problems and solutions into puzzles or fantasies."

"No matter what we call it, poison is still poison, death is still death, and industrial civilization is still causing the greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet."

"The stories we are told shape the way we see the world, which shapes the way we experience the world."

"We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems."

"If you only had a limited time to life (which is of course the case), how would you spend your time?"

"Every morning when I awake I ask myself whether I should write or blow up a dam. I tell myself I should keep writing, though I'm not sure that's right"

"Those in power have made it so we have to pay simply to exist on the planet. We have to pay for a place to sleep, and we have to pay for food. If we don't, people with guns come and force us to pay. That's violent."

"Premise Eight: The needs of the natural world are more important than the needs of the economic system."

"We have a need for enchantment that is as deep and devoted as our need for food and water."

"Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims."

"We must learn how to think like the planet."

"Writing is really very easy. Tap a vein and bleed onto the page. Everything else is just technical."

"A primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of green paper."

"We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls."

"Like the layers of an onion, under the first lie is another, and under that another, and they all make you "cry"."

"For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities."

"Within this culture wealth is measured by one's ability to consume and destroy."

"When you break up, your whole identity is shattered. It's like death."

"I want to work with great people. Great people really make you better."

"Jesus himself talked about prayer and meditation. Anything that brings you closer to the Lord, what's wrong with that?"

"God is the only way you're going to make it in life, the glue that holds everything together."

"You go to Main Street, and Wal-Mart is coming to town and kicking out all the mom and pop stores. All the people that were in the mom and pop stores are now working for Wal-Mart."

"In my early teen years, I wanted to become a vet. That was my plan. I worked as a veterinarian's assistant for a couple of summers."

"Sometimes in movies, I still have to be the hero, but it's not all that important to me anymore."