Criticism involves taking a position, Mr. Day. How long has it been since you took a considered position on anything important?

My father believes with his entire soul that the meek shall inherit the earth. My children will inherit the earth but they will not be meek.

Are we praying?" "If you have to ask, you probably aren't.

She placed her hands, one on each of his shoulders, stood on her toes and kissed him on the lips. He waited, enjoying the moment like none before.

I am a teacher. I should be giving tests, not taking them.

Slavery stands as an affront to human dignity.

I am an educated black woman in a time when educated black people will be called upon to risk everything for the rights of black people everywhere.

We are free, but we are not equal. We are free, but not as free as other people in this land are free.

Everyone loves a girl who can rise to a crisis.

Only one person can own any plate at a time. It belongs to the pitcher, or it belongs to the batter, Aiken, but not to both. You understand.

Do a lot of questions mean you are really smart or really dumb?

A whetstone, though it cannot cut, may sharpen a knife that will.

You must be able to bring relevance to people

The evidence of Martin Luther King Jnr’s “I have a dream” declaration was a passionate confirmation of how a dream meant for liberation, success and fulfilled life can become true.

There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word, but none without ghosts.

As long as you understand that you find happiness through family, friends and love, then money is just a nice bonus.

I did pilots here and there but mostly I was doing little bits in movies.

If you don't change, then what's the point of anything happening to you? It'll still be happening to an unchanged person.

Without equality, I say, there cannot be liberty.

However, the difficulties and pleasures of the writing itself are similar for a novel with a historical setting and a novel with a contemporary setting, as far as I'm concerned.

Man, biologically considered ... is simply the most formidable of all beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own kind.