Here I am, a product of something really vicious, product of the Atlantic slave trade. And yet, I give nary a thought to some of the awful things happening right now in the world.

There's something to be said about a slightly plump person—you have just enough of too much.

The inevitable is no less a shock just because it is inevitable.

Express everything you like. No word can hurt you. None. No idea can hurt you. Not being able to express an idea or word will hurt you more. Like a bullet.

I was given a dictionary when I was seven, and I read it because I had nothing else to read. I read it the way you read a book.

People don't make changes because things are wonderful.

I would be lost without the feeling of antagonism that people have towards me. I write out of defiance.

People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman.

A great piece of literature encompasses all that is and all that will be.

...yet a memory cannot be trusted, for so much of the experience of the past is determined by the experience of the present.

I'm so used to being misunderstood.

The only thing you must do, flesh-child, is die. The rest is but a trick of light in the foam on the waves.

This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst expect the best and take what comes.

The only thing I'm addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent.

It's easier for opposition members to condemn the government at the drop of a hat if they don't understand.

If god exists, he is not to be believed in.

I don't get nearly enough credit in life for the things I manage not to say.

Magic is the only way to describe it, climbing pitch after pitch of the most perfect, beautifully sculpted granite in the world.

Whatever thing a man sets his heart on...is his god; and if his god doesn't also happen to be the true and living God of Israel that man is laboring in idolatry.

Smile. It gives your face something to do.

Illumination by the Spirit is the endless end of every virtue.