A classic is a book that doesn't have to be written again.

Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.

There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained.

Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.

Strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities.

There is no force equal to a woman determined to rise

Nothing in the world is easier in the United States than to accuse a black man of crime.

We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong - this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty and we must follow it.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

I am especially glad of the divine gift of laughter: it has made the world human and lovable, despite all its pain and wrong.

Education must not simply teach work-it must teach life.

If I could uncover what beliefs and values control me, I can literally redesign me.

For a control freak, love and the desire to control others are synonymous. Once they lose control over the object of their desire, hostility takes over in full force.

Bliss is terribly private.

I'm really visually stimulated more than anything. I don't really listen to music. I'm more into watching telly or watching movies and visual art.

I don't really have studios. I wander around - around people's attics, out in fields, in cellars, anyplace I find that invites me.

I don’t mind being alone either. The only problem is that if you’re always alone, you get lonely.

I've been blessed with some lovely scripts and a character that people could truly identify with. It's one of those surprises in life that makes you think, 'God was smiling on me that particular day.

Humor is a very big part of life, and if you exclude humor from your book, you're not capturing a very important part of human experience.

Sometimes the closest-held secrets in the world can be pried out by the right question at the right time.

Why are we, the most medicalized of societies, a culture in pain?