It has been an ache and a joy both to look over this big shoulder of mine at all my yesterdays.

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.

Racism is one of the worst things that happened to our human race. It has brainwashed many to focus on one's race or complexion instead of one's personality.

The people who seem to need love the least are the ones who usually need it the most.

Now I wonder who is gonna be president: Tweedle Dumb, or Tweedle Dumber-- And who is gonna have the big block buster box office this summer.

I never stay anywhere — parties , museums, meetings — longer than 3 hours.

I love a garden and a book.

To become conscious of what is horrifying and to laugh at it is to become master of that which is horrifying

What faith has not been used by demagogues as a club over somebody's head?

Most savings rates are based on underlying interest rates.

I spend my day trying to make myself as happy and relaxed as I can be. If I have positions going against me, I get right out; if they are going for me, I keep them.

I don’t like animals. It’s a strange thing, I don’t like men and I don’t like animals. As for God, he is beginning to disgust me.