If I were the blushing kind, I would blush to be called a hero.

With the right kind of institutions, starting with the rule of law, Burma could progress very quickly.

Sanctions and boycotts would be tied to serious political dialogue.

We want to empower our people; we want to strengthen them; we want to provide them with the kind of qualifications that will enable them to build up their own country themselves.

Human beings want to be free and however long they may agree to stay locked up, to stay oppressed, there will come a time when they say 'That's it.' Suddenly they find themselves doing something that they never would have thought they would be doing, simply because of the human instinct that makes them turn their face towards freedom.

Maybe it is something to do with age, but I have become fonder of poetry than of prose.