Aung San Suu Kyi

I'm not the only one working for democracy in Burma - there are so many people who have worked for it because they believe that this is the only way we can maintain the dignity of our people.

When I was under house arrest, it was the BBC that spoke to me - I listened.

The best way to help Burma is to empower the people of Burma, to help us have enough self-confidence to obtain what we want for ourselves.

In politics, you also have to be cautiously optimistic.

I think by now I have made it fairly clear that I am not very happy with the word hope. I don't believe in people just hoping.

I don't think you can work on feelings in politics, apart from anything else, political change can come very unexpectedly, sometimes overnight when you least expect it.

The history of the world shows that peoples and societies do not have to pass through a fixed series of stages in the course of development.

I don't think of myself as unbreakable. Perhaps I'm just rather flexible and adaptable.

Democracy is when the people keep a government in check.

Sometimes I think that a parody of democracy could be more dangerous than a blatant dictatorship, because that gives people an opportunity to avoid doing anything about it.

To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.