Racism is a virus. And since nobody's really looking too hard for a cure it reproduces itself over and over again.

Surviving and believing in tomorrow is just a habit I can't break.

To my father, who told me the stories that matter. To my mother, who taught me to remember them.

I quickly learned that motherhood was a high wire act sometimes performed without a net.

Novelists have to love humanity to write anything worthwhile. Poets have to love themselves.

I am a stranger to half measures.

It was important, I know, for my father as a product of his times not to be vulnerable, so he chose, and I can't say that I blame him, to live his life rather than create it.

Love is going to replace life and from then on it's all smooth sailing. Love will replace life.

They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.

She wanted him to tell her that when you love someone so hard and so fierce, it was all right to do things that you knew were wrong.

I'm a big Aqua fan. "Barbie Girl" was a big deal growing up.

I've been lucky to be able to work with great people and on interesting material.

For me, the process of writing a novel happens mostly in your head before you actually start writing.

A gene can be either dominant or recessive, depending on which type of gene it is.

Leadership, pure and simple, is the assumption of responsibility for the pursuit of excellence in group life.

I wish every Republican wanted to impeach [Jeorge W.] Bush , but people don't agree with this. He's stating a fact about what he believes.

I'll think, If this is his first punch, how are the others gonna feel? That's the only fear I have for myself

My father always said working for somebody else never amounted to anything. You have to be an entrepreneur