The idea of voluntary segregation went against every value I had been taught. What did being born black have to do with excellence?

Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?

When I began to read, I began to exist

Cutting people out of your life is easy, keeping them in is hard.

We need to tell young people that America was built by men and women of all colors and that the future of this country is dependent on the participation of all of our citizens.

Reading is not optional.

I'll never live to write all the stories I have in my head.

We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional.

Think about all the tomorrows of your life.

We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct.

It's a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken

The beauty about being a producer is you sit there, and you explore ideas which become a passion, which slowly becomes a reality.

Unfortunate events though potentially a source of anger and despair have equal potential to be a source of spiritual growth. Whether or not this is the outcome depends on your response.

If you don't have the right people around you and you're moving at a million miles an hour you can lose yourself.

When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be cautious.

What are the proper grounds for joy? Is it circumstance which will determine the stature of my spirit? Ah, no. It is choice. It is always a choice - in the face of any event - for joy.

I suppose I will go on selling newspapers until at last will come the late night final.

Unless you have the courage to doubt you will never come to know the truth.

Choose to fully and graciously live life as it comes. The richest rewards by far are the ones to which you most sincerely give of yourself.

Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.

If you can feel like a good man in your 40s, you can feel like a better man in your 50s, a Superman in your 60s, and maybe a Spider-Man in your 70s.