Soon after joining the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia, I was called upon as part of team to respond to a malaria outbreak. My team was dispatched to a village in southwestern Ethiopia, where I not only observed the malaria epidemic's shocking effects on adults and children but also experienced it first-hand.

One lesson that every nation can learn from China is to focus more on creating village-level enterprises, quality health services and educational facilities.

Remember the rights of the savage, as we call him. Remember that the happiness of his humble home, remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan, among the winter snows, is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty God, as can be your own.

What I particularly like about Broadway is the camaraderie and the friendship of other people in other shows. Everybody knows you're opening and cares about you. There's a real village atmosphere.

When I was nine, the teacher asked us to write a piece about our village fete. He read mine in class. I was encouraged and continued. I even wanted to write my memoirs at the age of ten. At twelve I wrote poetry, mostly about friendship - 'Ode to Friendship.' Then my class wanted to make a film, and one little boy suggested that I write the script.

I was born in Paris, and it's a beautiful place, but London feels like home. I like the village feeling, I like running in the parks - even the food isn't as bad as it used to be.

Being famous as a writer is like being famous in a village. It's not really any very heady fame.

The building of friendship, family, community and love is complicated. We are so isolated in this country, no longer supported by tribes and villages.

Obviously, you would give your life for your children, or give them the last biscuit on the plate. But to me, the trick in life is to take that sense of generosity between kin, make it apply to the extended family and to your neighbour, your village and beyond.

My family is my little village. I really do feel like my fairy tale came true.

It is a very proud moment for our entire family that a movie has been made on our lives and we have taken a small village of Haryana to Hollywood.

Emigration, forced or chosen, across national frontiers or from village to metropolis, is the quintessential experience of our time.

I've been doing a lot of work on female rights, especially adolescent rights. I've been to a lot of schools where the UNICEF had set up villages in India, and it's an eye-opening experience.

Be it a village or a city, education is very important, and it always comes into you.

Giving women education, work, the ability to control their own income, inherit and own property, benefits the society. If a woman is empowered, her children and her family will be better off. If families prosper, the village prospers, and eventually so does the whole country.

When I moved to the East Village in the late seventies, I wanted to be a street performer, so I practiced daily. I never did work up the skills or the courage to perform on the street, though.

I could never muster the courage to speak to girls in my college in Pune. Most of them were Parsis and spoke English. I came from a village and could barely converse in English.

Many of our own people here in this country do not ask about computers, telephones and television sets. They ask - when will we get a road to our village.

All of Africa's resources should be declared resources of the state and managed by the nation. Our experience in Bolivia shows that when you take control of natural resources for the people of the town and village, major world change is possible.

Every day, women and girls are finding incredible confidence and taking risks. When they change one mind, pretty soon, they have changed one tradition. That changed tradition has changed a village. That one village has changed a country. That new reality means new opportunities for themselves and their daughters.

When I have a chance to go back to my village, I always remind myself where I came from.

Remote villages and communities have lost their identity, and their peace and charm have been sacrificed to that worst of abominations, the automobile.

We need to become good citizens in the global village, instead of competing. What are we competing for - to drive more cars, eat more steaks? That will destroy the world.

It was my dream to have a beauty parlour in our village and to live near my family in Sinjar.