What America does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is to understand others.

Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.

Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.

Writing is a struggle against silence.

The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States.

Art gives life to what history killed. Art gives voice to what history denied, silenced, or persecuted. Art brings truth to the lies of history.

I need, therefore I imagine.

One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.

What's happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die.

A winning mindset can transform an underdog into a champion, conqueror, and achiever. You’re a mindset away from winning your battles!

Eccentricity may be diverting, Mama, but it is out of place in a wife: certainly in my wife!

Hello, Mary.'It was like hearing a note of divine calm after a dissonant passage of music. My confusion died away.

The gratitude ascending from man to God is the supreme transaction between earth and heaven.

Eternally, woman spills herself away in driblets to the thirsty, seldom being allowed the time, the quiet, the peace, to let the pitcher fill up to the brim.

The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.

For too long, musicians have been the greatest enemy of music. Their lack of desire to proselytize is a kind of betrayal.

It's more fun to watch without joining in.

Why is it you always meet people when you look your worst?

What I always look for in just about any band or artists I sign is their songs.