My biggest excuse to others and myself was that I had writer's block, as if it was some kind of illness.

A wonderful emotion to get things moving when one is stuck is anger. It was anger more than anything else that had set me off, roused me into productivity and creativity.

My block was due to two overlapping factors: laziness and lack of discipline.

If you really want to write, then shut yourself in a room, close the door, and WRITE. If you don't want to write, do something else. It's as simple as that.

Reading Stephen King's book, On Writing, was like being cornered and forced to have a long, drawn out mental enema.

I was a new devotee of Eastern mysticism and even though I did not join that particular group, I could well have done. They seemed a bit extreme but I regarded myself as not quite ready.

I decided to write about the myths of divorce.

For a long period in my life - it lasted about 10 years - I had writer's block.

I have never been nervous in all my life and I have no patience with people who are. If you know what you are going to do, you have no reason to be nervous. And I knew what I was going to do.

My inner critic who had begun piping up about how hopeless I was and how I didn't know to write.

When you hear the voice of Rosa Ponselle, you hear a fountain of melody blessed by the Lord.

Christianity helps us face the music even when we don't like the tune.

Essentially, filmmakers have to be free and not directed by power or politicians.

Most conservative and progressive talk radio is primarily just that - bloviated opinion and whacky viewer calls.

Johnson Publishing offered me an opportunity to build back iconic brands like Ebony and Jet magazines.

To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life.

But the most wretched thing, is it not-is to drag out, as I do, a useless existence. If our pains were only of some use to someone, we should find consolation in the thought of the sacrifice.

No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.

The amazing heroic women in labor, they are the truest inspiration, and when they push their babies into the light... I am astonished every time.

When caught in conflict and blame - make a U-turn and shift your attention from blaming thoughts to what's going on emotionally in your body.

Clearly, we are very, very concerned about the situation, for instance, that has been going on in Gaza.