I get angry about things, then go on and work.

I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies.

If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers.

If we want great things to happen then we must create space in our lives for what we desire.

Southerners have mastered picking, choosing, and rationalizing religious texts to fit their social agenda better than their own mother’s fried chicken recipe.

When you try to be everything to everyone, you accomplish being nothing to anyone

Richard Serra, the great sculptor, personifies an artist for me.

My father was absent and he was a hero to me.

I like riding a bicycle built for two--by myself.

There's no point in success if you don't let it go to your head. That's what it's for.

If you see me once, you cannot confuse me with another.

Set your affection to infinity and your hate to zero!