Had I not had my grandmother, who dared to be my rainbow in the clouds, I would have been just another sexually abused barefoot black girl on the roads of Arkansas.

Nothing will work unless you do.

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. Please remember that your difficulties do not define you. They simply strengthen your ability to overcome.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style

If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!

Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they're having a piss.

Politics is always driven by competing worries.

The spirit of man is an inward flame a lamp the world blows upon but never puts out.

Life is full of chances and changes and the most prosperous of men may ... meet with great misfortunes.

I have learned that track doesn't define me. My faith defines me. I'm running because I have been blessed with a gift.

I've read 'Valley of the Dolls' at least four times. It's so epic!

If you had the ceiling falling down in your living room, would you not go and have a repair?

I kind of strive for being able to go home and having a totally separate life.

When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it's like giving them emotional oxygen.

The earliest form in which romances appear is that of a rude kind of verse.