Being able to laugh got me through.

I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies.

If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

All this beauty exists so you and I can see His glory, His artwork. It's like an invitation to worship Him, to know Him.

Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it.

Family is just accident. . . . They don't mean to get on your nerves. They don't even mean to be your family they just are.

Hip-hop was the culture that I grew up with; I am part of this culture.

I never could get over the fact that The Pixies formed, worked and separated without America taking them to its heart or even recognizing their existence for the most part.

Being a parent is the greatest trust that has been given to human beings.

We are not the end of the gospel; God is.

Couple stares, couple texts, couple dates. Couple 'I think that we're ready's couple 'I think we should wait's

[Asked whether he would like to see an experimental demonstration of conical refraction] No. I have been teaching it all my life, and I do not want to have my ideas upset.

I think I have a pugnacious style. My style is not pretty. I don't use words like "amber" or "opaque."