After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody else must be feeling. It wasn't a nice time.

Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

The best thing about living... Is the chance to keep on doing it!

My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.

Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.

You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way. But the slanting process is so subtle that you frequently don't realize how you're being slanted until very late in the game.

I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.

The freedom of affluence opposes and contradicts the freedom of community life.

Without love life is impossible.

Humans are one, not divided, but multiplied into many.

Really you just gotta keep chugging along and keep a positive attitude and get through all the problems. You gotta face them, otherwise you don't get through.

What drags down our entire economy is when there's an ever-widening chasm between the ultra-rich and everybody else.

There's a difference between being yourself and being your stereotype.

Science rests on reason and experiment, and can meet an opponent with calmness; [but] a creed is always sensitive.

Climbing had captured my soul.

In good writing, words become one with things.

Being tall and big was probably more painful than being black.