Anyone who knows me well must understand and be sympathetic to my genuine need to be my own greatest hero. It is not a flaw of character; it is a catastrophe.

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.

I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.

I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.

The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

A grain of poetry suffices to season a century.

Consciousness is a transformational dynamic force which transforms us by changing our imaginations and perceptions.

Photoshop and Lightroom help me transform my photos into what my heart felt, but my camera couldn't quite capture!

I would like to have seen my sons growing up.

Abu Ghraib, as bad as it was, can't be compared to what Saddam was doing to people.

My men and I have decided that our boss, the president of the United States, is as tough as woodpecker lips.

The majority of people know me as a dancer, but they don't also know that I'm a director, a songwriter and a producer.

I love networking. But I learned to love it

The words I overuse are all adverbs.

In the course of the reform, some new circumstances that we had not anticipated have appeared.