Up until then I'd thought that white people and colored people getting alone was the big aim, but after that I decided everybody being colorless together was a better plan.

If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.

Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.

I'm tired of carrying around the weight of the world. I'm just going to lay it down now. It's my time to die, and it's your time to live. Don't mess it up.

Nothing is fair in this world. You might as well get that straight right now

Every living creature on the earth is special. You want to be the one that puts an end to one of them?

We are so limited, you have to use the same word for loving Rosaleen as you do for loving Coke with peanuts. Isn't that a shame we don't have many more ways to say it?

There is nothing perfect...only life.

I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it.

And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.

Actually, you can be bad at something...but if you love doing it, that will be enough. - August Boatwright

History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past

The shortest road man walks, is sadly the road of gratitude!

No effort makes a black crow into a white hawk.

And that heart which was a wild garden was given to him who only loved trim lawns. And the imbecile carried the princess into slavery.

I always tell students that the first question to ask about any historical action is this: who makes money out of the deal?

There is a star above us which unites souls of the first order, though worlds and ages separate them.

We were outplayed in every facet of the game

My domineering lover made no apologies for his caveman tendencies.

The owl goes not into the nest of the lark.

No one should have to grieve alone.