There came a point when I wanted to do television, and I didn't think the Afro was going to play, so I made a very difficult choice - to straighten my hair.

My parents pressed upon me that "In this world, you are a black woman," so I was political about my hair and would not straighten it.

My mother's white, and she didn't know how to do my hair, so I had something that I always call white-mama hair.

Often hair is the way we are differentiated in this culture. To me the decision to straighten your hair is deeply political.

For black women our sense of ourselves is not always consistent with the way other people see us.

I've done lots of pieces on self-esteem and hair. There's a desire to conform, but if the encouragement to be yourself is there from loved ones, you'll find that later, that true self will come out.

The more you give of yourself, the more you find yourself.

Meditation brings Nirvana, and Nirvana brings Buddhahood.

She had nothing to do all day ... but did it with the greatest possible speed.

War can't give life, it can only take it away.

The loneliest feeling in the world is when you think you are leading the parade and turn to find that no one is following you. No president who badly misguesses public opinion will last very long.

Ever since he's been a little boo-aw.

But coming to terms with one’s sorrow is one thing; sharing it with strangers is quite another.

I think ethics is always there; it's not always a very thoughtful or reflective ethics.

For the ordinary man, whose mind is a checkerboard of criss-crossing reflections, opinions, and prejudices, bare attention is virtually impossible.

In all my career, in my ups and downs, I've never had a beauty campaign. This was meaningful that at almost 41 years old, I could be getting my first beauty campaign. It made me feel really great.