The first-born in every family is always dreaming for an imaginary older brother or sister who will look out for them.

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing.

People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what's bitter and move on.

Nothing I've ever done has given me more joys and rewards than being a father to my children.

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.

I wasn't always black... there was this freckle, and it got bigger and bigger.

Raising children is an incredibly hard and risky business in which no cumulative wisdom is gained: each generation repeats the mistakes the previous one made.

It isn't a matter of black is beautiful as much as it is white is not all that's beautiful.

The main goal of the future is to stop violence. The world is addicted to it.

When your madness is creative and necessary, people will not notice the fact that you are crazy.

The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table.

Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home.

Friendship is evanescent in every man's experience, and remembered like heat lightning in past summers.

America, the country of my heart, my second home.

There are details within details within details to anchor you in the fact that we are talking about the real world, not an illustrated children's book fantasy world.

The virtue lies in the struggle, not the prize.

At Baalbek Nuts I bought pistachios from the Lebanese owners, who answered my request for their thoughts on the war with the typically Lebanese response of no problem. It's a lie, as we all knew.

Away down the river, A hundred miles or more, Other little children Shall bring my boats ashore.

If you believe you have a voice and something to say, chances are you do, and the world needs you to do whatever you're drawn to do. So you should do it.