We all make deals with ourselves when it comes to the difficult people in our lives.

There's nothing wrong with being happy somewhere, even if it's the little pond you grew up in, as long as you are in fact comfortable vs. bored.

Minimizing exposure to miserable people is nothing short of a life strategy.

Relationships are complicated, but happiness in a relationship isn't: It's just wanting exactly what you have. Wanting something else is dispiriting.

I do crosswords when I have time to kill somewhere, and am 100 percent successful on filling in the spots I get stuck on - after I close up, do something else, and then go back to it.

No matter what else comes, your courage will be your companion for life.

It's hard to send your baby off on a plane without you, though that's less reasonable, because sending him off in a car is statistically a bigger risk.

You don't want someone who can't tell the difference between having a different opinion and dismissing your opinion.

When in doubt, respond to what you witness, not what you hear secondhand.

Instead of talking at each other about the non-business-related contact, talk to each other about your concerns about marriage. Listen a lot, too.

When people get more frustrated by their indecision than by the situation that prompted it, clarity often follows.

Ego seeks the domination by war, but spirit seeks the peace through love.

Sensation tell us a thing is.Thinking tell us what it is this thing is.Feeling tells us what this thing is to us.

A mind is not weighed by its magnitude, but by the dimensions of its thoughts.

I like to write and draw everything with sharpies. I even got one with my own name on it!

Every pound for a woman in the real world is seven pounds for an actress.

Expression, to a great extent, is a matter of terms, and terms are anyone's. The meaning of 'God' may have a billion interpretations if there be that many souls in the world

Any hack can safely rail away at foreign powers beyond the sea; but a good writer is a critic of the society he lives in.

Wherever the good work is I'll go.

Even when we get what we addictively want, our wanting to keep things that way automatically creates a new addiction.

I'm retiring the Mos Def name after 2011. I'm actually doing it.