Death would be a complete knowingness, but what frightened him was this: not knowing beforehand what it was he would know.

Never ever accept 'Because You Are A Woman' as a reason for doing or not doing anything.

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

We teach girls shame; close your legs, cover yourself, we make them feel as though by being born female they're already guilty of something.

To choose to write is to reject silence.

Of course I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in.

If you start thinking about being likable you are not going to tell your story honestly.

There are people who dislike you because you do not dislike yourself.

Our society teaches a woman at a certain age who is unmarried to see it as a deep personal failure. While a man at a certain age who is unmarried has not quite come around to making his pick.

Privilege blinds, because it's in its nature to blind. Don't let it blind you too often. Sometimes you will need to push it aside in order to see clearly.

Culture does not make people. People make culture.

I just don't have a tremendously strong belief that relationships can work. I'm really quite convinced that they don't. And if they do, it's really quite terribly brief and sporadic.

If you can’t see a solution it does not mean it doesn’t exist, you are just blind to it

Enjoy the present day trusting very little to the morrow.

The pomps and vanity of this wicked world.

The public is increasingly disgusted with a steady diet of defamation, and prepared to reward those who refrain from it.

To seem natural rather than to be natural.

I could not say I believe. I know! I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself, something that people call God.

Rap is supposed to be about keeping it real and not relinquishing your roots in the community. Without that, it's just posturing. Somebody who claims to speak for the 'hood don't need no private jet.

Think not of what you did yesterday, but what you can do for yourself today.

If you want to be witty, work on your character and say what you think on every occasion.