"When adequate shelter space does not exist, there is no meaningful distinction between the status of being homeless and the conduct of sleeping in public."

"Boycotts have failed. Our clothes are being made in ways that advocacy campaigns can’t affect and in places they can’t reach."

"Until now, no major survey had ever found that the uninsured rate in America has hit single digits."

"This progress in Africa gives us a reason to be optimistic, but not complacent."

"Being an ally has come to mean legitimizing a political position by borrowing someone else’s voice... It’s a way of simultaneously taking power and evading personal accountability."

"I was in a chilly movie theater when I had my first flashback."

"If we don't like being exposed to worship from Calais, then it is for us to face the hard question of why – not simply to project this on to the soft target of the BBC."

"What? No. Nobody would seriously propose that grief comes in distinct stages."

"With $25,000 I could pay off my debts, quit my jobs, and run the air on hi cool for a while. I submitted my poem that very day."

"Pooh and I definitely agree on the no-pants thing. As soon as I'm home, off they go—and I'm knuckle-deep in a pot of honey."

Steve Thorngate

The Century managing editor is also a church musician and songwriter.

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