The small figures that appear in my paintings are there only because they were there when I was working from nature on my preliminary sketches with pencil.

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

I'm so tired of waiting, aren't you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?

The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.

A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the Earth And every man is free.

When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed - Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.

Negroes - Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day - They change their mind.

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ... Or does it explode?

You fear them because you fear death, and rightly: for death is terrible and must be feared, ' the mage said...'And life is also a terrible thing, ' Ged said, 'and must be feared and praised.

You are worthy of your wildest dreams.

I've yet to find another soul who believes in me with the same fervency as my mother.

Anyway, I think the two of you should be free to do whatever you want right now. When you're young, you think the only way to happiness is the hard road... but it's actually much simpler than that.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live in every experience, painful or joyous, to live in gratitude for every moment, to live abundantly.

Women have always been an equal part of the past. We just havent been a part of history.

There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.

Movies are our cheap and easy expression, the sullen art of displaced persons.

I do have a muse. I am not sure how to describe her. She can be very elusive. She was born in England but has Mediterranean ancestry.