I have reason to be shy. I've been hurt plenty.

Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.

Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.

We are all gifted. That is our inheritance.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk

Many people know how to criticize, but few know how to praise.

Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.

Today or any day that phone may ring and bring good news.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

All the men in my life have been two things: an epic and an epidemic.

We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price and staked everything on it.

Since flesh can't stay, we pass the words along.

Better trust all, and be deceived, And weep that trust and that deceiving, Than doubt one heart, that if believed Had blessed one's life with true believing.

I think a photograph, of whatever it might be - a landscape, a person - requires personal involvement. That means knowing your subject, not just snapping at whats in front of you.

The best movies have one sentence that they're exploring, a thesis, something that people can argue about over dinner afterward.

I always say the movie came out good if they want another one. That always tells me that people really liked the movie.

Everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity.

You know how great villains just believe in what they're doing? In their minds they're not villains, they're not doing anything wrong; they're just self-righteous in their dedication to their cause.

The past shouldn't be forgotten. It should be used as a guide for future situations and not used as a reason to avoid making difficult decisions. There was always a choice.

Popularity is the crown of laurel which the world puts on bad art. Whatever is popular is wrong.