I would not wish to live in a world where I could not express my honest opinions. Men who deny to others the right of speech are not fit to live with honest men.

I don't want to live in a country where a government decides if you were raped or not.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

I don't want my past to become anyone else's future.

I don't like to write anything down on paper that I would not say to myself.

My act of conscience began with a statement: "I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded. That's not something I'm willing to support, it's not something I'm willing to build, and it's not something I'm willing to live under." Days later, I was told my government had made me stateless and wanted to imprison me. The price for my speech was my passport, but I would pay it again: I will not be the one to ignore criminality for the sake of political comfort. I would rather be without a state than without a voice... when all of us band together against injustices and in defense of privacy and basic human rights, we can defend ourselves from even the most powerful systems."

:There's much that I want to say, that I, uh, I wish I wasn't privy to some of the classified information that I am privy to because I think that, um—

I don't want my life to be defined by what is etched on a tombstone. I want it to be defined in what is etched in the lives and hearts of those I've touched.

I don't want to end up simply having visited the world.

...people shouldn’t have to make statements and their lives should be private if they want to be. But I think if someone’s feeling restricted by not making a statement, then they should be free to do so. I chose to speak to you because I don’t want to lie by omission and I want to be very straightforward about my life...

If it’s going to be a world with no time for sentiment, it’s not a world that I want to live in.

If you don’t want a secret, don’t accept it.

"Oh, to be laughed at when I have the courage to speak my heart. I don't want to live in a world like this."

-from "Diary of My Sixteenth Year"

I don’t want to become more famous because I don’t have any privacy anymore and I hate that very much. Outside of work I just want to be an ordinary person, not to be recognised, not a monkey on the street when everybody is looking at you.