I've never been able to feel that there is anything undignified about making your living by the sweat of your brow.

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.

Wasting time changes the nature of time. And the heart is stilled.

These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.

It is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of origin of life; one might as well think of origin of matter.

I always had a repulsive sort of need to be something more than human.

I go into a movie sort of saying what it's not going to be.

I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.

I just keep working on things I like, and hope for the best. I hope people enjoy them.

When you’re going through something hard and you start wondering where Allah is, just remember, the Teacher is always quiet during a test.

I have always hated that damn James Bond. I'd like to kill him.

I found the secret to life: I'm ok when everything is not ok.