Suffering and joy teach us, if we allow them, how to make the leap of empathy, which transports us into the soul and heart of another person.

Optimizing your strength is not optional, it's an obligation.

Common sense is in spite of not the result of education.

I auditioned for 'American Idol' at 17. They told me, 'No.'

We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return

Every bit of our lives revolves around how we get from one place to another and how long it's going to take to get there and what time of day you have to leave to do it.

How can you beat someone thats already lost everything?

In the schoolroom her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules and disconnected facts which saves ignorance from any painful sense of limpness.

There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.

Do we dare to be ourselves?' This is the question that counts - and not, 'Must a man be helpless?' ...A man can do something for peace without having to jump into politics.

I really wanted to show [in "fences"] a marriage that is working. Not perfect, but working.