"Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time."

"Our firm conviction that ours is a just cause and that we must find a peaceful way to attain our goals gave us the strength and the awareness of the limits beyond which we must not go."

"The politicians always told us that the Cold War stand-off could only change by way of nuclear war. None of them believed that such systemic change was possible."

"You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers, why don't you use them in the search for love?"

"There's a glorious sense of freedom in comedy, just allowing myself to tell jokes, allowing myself to interrupt myself and tell old African folk stories that I made up - or didn't - and Jamaican stories."

"I'm one of those writers who, when writing, believes she's god-and that she hasn't bestowed free will on any of her characters. In that sense there are no surprises in any of my books."

"If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom."

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."