I tell younger writers that indeed it is devastating to be rejected. You feel like the bottom dropped out of your world.

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.

I felt absolutely nothing, and that frightened me even more than the darkness of oblivion

The most powerful and strongest part in your body is your 'brain'. It can fetch u anything.. Use it and Use it wisely.

Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.

So many paintings have hidden meanings or need wall texts, but my work is not in that category.

I'm pretty social so it's hard for me to find solitude, but I need to have solitude to write.

I was really just the tea boy to begin with, or the equivalent thereof, but I quickly announced, innocently but very ambitiously, that I wanted to be, I was going to be, a foreign correspondent.

A cleric who loses his faith abandons his calling; a philosopher who loses his redefines his subject.

Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates.

Tried to find me an executive position, but no matter how smooth I talked they wouldn't listen to the fact that I was a genius.

I came from a big family. As a matter of fact, I never got to sleep alone until I was married.