I would never say I had a bad childhood at all.

You are more powerful than you know; you are beautiful just as you are.

Be strong, believe in who you are; be strong, believe in what you feel.

It was tough being a single mom. It was tough being in a divorce with children. Very, very hard.

Don't let anyone tell you that you have to be a certain way. Be unique. Be what you feel.

The sign says do not enter, no trespassing allowed. With visions of redemption I walk against the crowd.

We are getting older, and we are getting wiser, and we are getting freer. And when you get the wisdom and the truth, then you get the freedom and you get power, and then look out. Look out.

I can be a rock star with a television show and still have a self-esteem problem. So it's nice to have your dad go, 'Hey Melissa, I'm proud of you - you're doing good.'

There will always be someone else with a different view than you. I appreciate them and would never say that they are wrong. I hope that they would give me that courtesy also.

I feel my heart break to see a nation ripped apart by it's own greatest strength - it's diversity.

There's a point when your tape of life runs off the reel and there's this stillness of your own - I got to know myself.

Growing up, I knew where the world ended. I could see it, at the horizon, where the sky touched the corn. My life was bounded and known. I *knew* the edges of the world. And then I went to college.

The Creator determines entrance and exit of every soul.

I like pulling on a baggy bee suit, forgetting myself and getting as close to the bees' lives as they will let me, remembering in the process that there is more to life than the merely human.

Who you are is a necessary step to being who you will be.

Around here, we're as happy as God in France.

Presidential ambition is a disease that can only be cured by embalming fluid.

Great books are written from a sense that there is nothing to lose.

It is odd that we never question the feasibility of a football team practicing long hours for one game; yet in writing we rarely give ourselves the space for practice.

I kicked down doors to show that Hiphop has matured. And it may be a little controversial.

The significant owl hoots in the night.