The subculture of felons is in great vogue among adolescents. Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and so forth allow us Republicans to say to America's young people, 'We be thugs.' The GOP may capture the youth vote at last.

Californians are people who insist on growing their own vegetables, but they won't dig up the pretty lawn, won't plant anything for fear of getting dirty, and they use fragrant bath salts from The Body Shop instead of smelly compost.

You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they're going.

Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered.

If you look at the movie 'Belly,' I identify with Sincere the most. I am a gangster. I love my lady to death. I'm not in the game for the wrong reasons. I'm not in the game for the glory. I'm in the game to survive so the people that I love could be straight. I'm a highly intelligent individual.

The small family farm is dying; people's lives are being dislocated.

But I have been in some very beautiful churches, then I've looked outside and seen people starving to death.

I wrote 'Mistress of Spices' at an unusual time when I had a near-death experience after the birth of my second son.