My greatest influence has been the blues. And that's a literary influence, because I think the blues is the best literature that we as black Americans have.

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.

Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone's disbelief.

All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.

All of art is a search for ways of being, of living life more fully.

Your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel.

You get to the point where your demons, which are terrifying, get smaller and smaller and you get bigger and bigger.

The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.

Freedom is heavy. You got to put your shoulder to freedom. Put your shoulder to it and hope your back holds up.

Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.

You got to be right with yourself before you can be right with anybody else.

... and her name was Freedom.

I wore goofy hats to school and did musical theater. Most people thought I was a dork. But if you have a sense of humor about it, no one can bring you down.

And the gold of her ruined wedding dress.

You don't write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you're really doing it, that's all you're doing: writing.

I notice that teams are now more interested in Japanese players than when I first went to Europe.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. But I do love actors. I wish I could drop a bunch of names, but there are just too many.

But the higher a man mounts, the greater may be his fall; all genius is a conquering of chaos, mystery.

It still hasn't sunk in that I'm going to be in Coronation Street. Everything about the role is brilliant and I'm working with some great people.

I'm obviously younger, much better looking [then Jeorge W.Bush].He didn't veto things, he didn't bring order and fiscal restraint.

The temples are a refuge from life's storms even a never-failing beacon guiding us to safety.