I acknowledge immense debt to the griots [tribal poets] of Africa - where today it is rightly said that when a griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground.

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.

Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics.

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.

The way to succeed is never quit. Thats it. But really be humble about it.

Roots is not just a saga of my family. It is the symbolic saga of a people.

Every time an old person dies, it's like a library burning down.

Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.

When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth.

When you clench your fist, no one can put anything in your hand.

You have to deal with the fact that your life is your life.

If you have a dream, keep it. But write it down and take appropriate actions to see it manifest.

You are good enough to make whatever you want to achieve possible. You just need to find your talent and passion, then put a heck a lot of work into it.

Well one tiny poisonous spider can kill a very large man if it bites him in the right place.

Liberty is freedom constrained only by our responsibility to respect the equal rights of others.

There isn't much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.

Cooper wrote a novel which is absolutely indistinguishable from Austen, completely from a female point of view, completely English, no sense that he was an American.

I'm crass, contemptuous and crude, obstreperous, obnoxious, rambunctiously raw and rude.

To come into camp and have my defensive coordinator say you won't be touched, I feel like a kid all over again.

Silicon Valley is a mindset, not a location.

Millions of Germans had absolute faith in Hitler. Millions of Russians had faith in Stalin. Millions of Chinese had faith in Mao. Billions have had faith in imaginary gods.