I was given a dictionary when I was seven, and I read it because I had nothing else to read. I read it the way you read a book.

There's something to be said about a slightly plump person—you have just enough of too much.

The inevitable is no less a shock just because it is inevitable.

Express everything you like. No word can hurt you. None. No idea can hurt you. Not being able to express an idea or word will hurt you more. Like a bullet.

People don't make changes because things are wonderful.

I would be lost without the feeling of antagonism that people have towards me. I write out of defiance.

People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman.

A great piece of literature encompasses all that is and all that will be.

...yet a memory cannot be trusted, for so much of the experience of the past is determined by the experience of the present.

I'm so used to being misunderstood.

When I'm writing, I think about the garden, and when I'm in the garden I think about writing. I do a lot of writing by putting something in the ground.

I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it.

There is no friendship between kings.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.

It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals.

The corporatization of something as basic and intimate as eating is, for many of us today, a good place to draw the line.

I am determined to use competition law to protect European industry and consumers.

If you like easygoing, monogamous men, stay away from billionaires.

But it’s like Cherise says, the hardest ones to love are always the ones who need it most. (Aimee)