Robert Winston Quotes

I think that my work is my attempt, I suppose, is to try and become a piece of connective tissue. I'm trying to communicate with people here and in America - in rich countries - about what I see on the ground in badly affected areas.

Right after undergrad, I started doing low-level work on health issues in sub-Saharan Africa, and what struck me was the disconnect between how people in New York would speak about some of the issues people were facing. At the time, 2006-ish, there were a number of big media campaigns to raise awareness about HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

When we see people that are impoverished and people who are dealt an unfair hand, then if we have the power to help them, we should try to do that.

We assume that we've come so far as compassionate citizens of the world if we do choose to read the news, yet the attitude towards life can be one where we put blinders on and forget that there are civil wars going on. It's easy to forget that there are so many people starving to death every single day.

The Peace Corps would give thousands of young Americans a chance to see at first hand the conditions in remote areas of the world.

I'm interested in having a relationship with the world that's not my own.

I'd play music on the street, especially in developing nations where a lot of kids couldn't wear shoes. In order to relate with kids that would be following me barefoot, I would take off my shoes, and they would all laugh at me because I couldn't go three steps without wincing.

Going to Liberia really changed a lot for me. I didn't realize what was happening on the same planet. My understanding that in the world everything is interconnected really grew - to go to one of the poorest countries from one of the richest countries in the world. It was two worlds apart.

If people are given the chance to experience life in more than one country, they will hate a little less. It's not a miracle potion, but little by little you can solve problems in the basement of a country, not on the surface.

Working in an underdeveloped land for two or three years, the volunteer will often find that his work is routine and full of frustration.

The fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this, and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off - we do not have to stand for this.

People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.

Attacking the indecency of life in much of the Southern Hemisphere is no longer a matter of grace, of charity, of patronizing kindness. It is a matter of intense self-interest.

I really connect with those moments of doing missionary work down there and just seeing the people that are dying from disease and hunger and malnutrition.

There is a lot that happens around the world we cannot control. We cannot stop earthquakes, we cannot prevent droughts, and we cannot prevent all conflict, but when we know where the hungry, the homeless and the sick exist, then we can help.

When you see people suffering and dying and hungry, this job gives you the ability to do something about it.

I think a lot of Americans have never been all that hungry. They've never had war on their shore, and they've never suffered the way other cultures have suffered. I'm not saying we should go suffer. Not at all. I'm saying we should be more aware of how other cultures exist.

I'd love to venture out into some international work. I would like to do some work in Sri Lanka as well.

I believe being a true Global Citizen means you have the willingness and openness to step outside of your own boundaries, and I'm honored to represent that with TUMI.

I can't look in the mirror and see people dying on the street that should have the same opportunities that I've had. And say 'You know what? I can live with myself.' Because I can't if I just watch.

I know we have a lot of poverty and we have a lot of problems over here in the U.S., but for me, I've been outside the country, and that's really where my heart is - to help others outside.

I've seen suffering first-hand, and we have to make sure we relieve people's suffering.

It's really important to have subjects that people all over the world are familiar with, and the Disney films are really great that way.

Our humanitarian aid system is sick and needs to be fixed. It needs to get a reality check and get back humanity.

Music, many times, around the world, serves to help us understand other people without having to talk.