In the mind, in the heart, I was always home. I always imagined, really, going back home.

Be careful, think about the effect of what you say. Your words should be constructive, bring people together, not pull them apart.

The conqueror writes history, they came, they conquered and they write. You don't expect the people who came to invade us to tell the truth about us.

Girls are the future mothers of our society, and it is important that we focus on their well-being.

I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising.

Age is getting to know all the ways the world turns, so that if you cannot turn the world the way you want, you can at least get out of the way so you won't get run over.

There are three things I was born with in this world, and there are three things I will have until the day I die-hope, determination, and song.

Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them

I see other black women imitate my style, which is no style at all, but just letting our hair be itself. They call it the Afro Look.

I do not sing politics. I merely sing the truth.

If given a choice, I would have certainly selected to be what I am: one of the oppressed instead of one of the oppressors.

Sometimes I think everyone's an attorney.

Well, I will wear the bees, like Damon and Pythagoras – ho, a mere sixty thousand bees in the cabin don't signify, much.

I watched, hoping she wouldn't come out too broke. It's all you can do for people sometimes, no matter how much you love them.

It doesn't matter what people tell you. It doesn't matter what they might say. Sometimes you have to leave home. Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.

As anyone knows who has ever had to set up a military encampment or build a village from the ground up, occupations pose staggering logistical problems.

Tell your kids they are perfect the way they are, but they shouldn't stay where they are forever because growing, testing the limits, and evolving make life better and more fulfilling.

The emigrants although of different parties and different religious sects all flew from persecution in pursuit of liberty.

This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life.

Official truth is not actual truth.

Don't be more serious than God. God invented dog farts.