I have always been a softie, and I fight it with every fiber of my being. Sadly, my being's fibers need to hit the gym.

Marriage isn't a carnival ride.

I don't believe in superheroes but I love Batman movies. There's a part of every person that is entertained by the idealistic, the fantastic.

On general principle, I boycott shows that don't employ actors.

Nothing really worth having is easy to get. The hard-fought battles, the goals won with sacrifice, are the ones that matter.

Wounds turn into scars and scars make you tough.

Karaoke is the great equalizer.

You can only really learn from failure ... To win, you need to fail, and fail hard.

My parents were vegetarians. I'd show up at school, this giant black kid, with none of the cool clothes and a tofu sandwich and celery sticks.

Pop culture is great, but it can be bad, at times.

I don't want to be pandered to, so I try not to pander.

Let's not grow with our roots in the ground.

Ahab and aguish lay stretched together in one hammock.

Three carefully stringed words are worth more than a book of gibberish. It's not the word count but the impact of those words that counts.

I could teach. I could wait tables. I could cook in a restaurant. Food and teaching were the two skills I had.

The wolf changes his coat, but not his disposition.

We feel good and ill only in proportion to our self-love.

Everybody thinks I'm this delicate little girl. But you can't tell a book by it's cover.' To which she added a momentary smile.

On this narrow planet, we have only the choice between two unknown worlds. One of them tempts us - ah! what a dream, to live in that! - the other stifles us at the first breath.

All buildings are predictions. All predictions are wrong.

Climate change is more remote than terror but a more profound threat to the future of the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren I hope all of you have.