There is a certain type of white Southerner who respects certain Negro individuals.

Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.

Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.

We are all gifted. That is our inheritance.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk

Many people know how to criticize, but few know how to praise.

Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.

Today or any day that phone may ring and bring good news.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

All the men in my life have been two things: an epic and an epidemic.

A rich man is not a man without problems but a man whose faith has conquered the problems even when it's there.

You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.

You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.

Whenever you want to marry someone go have lunch with his ex-wife.

All I wanted was to be involved in politics and government.

The media's so bad, I'm gonna hit 'em as hard as I can.

I didn't grow up in a home that glorified Hollywood. We didn't watch TV. We didn't have a lot of magazines around.

A weak mind is the only defect out of our power to mend.

There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives.

Be the leader you wish you had.