What people should do is explain to their friends, to their neighbors how they feel when they confront the word n - - and why they feel the way they feel.

I will say go into the world and try to find good people that feel genuine affection and love for you, and disregard everything else about their background.

In elite, primarily white institutions, there are many blacks who have white wives. So much so that sometimes there is almost the assumption that I would be married to a white woman.

I was born in Columbia in 1954, the year the Supreme Court invalidated racial segregation in public schools. I visited frequently but did not live there.

Any successful black person will have to face suspicion within his or her own community about his or her loyalty to other blacks.

If you want to put somebody down, analogize them to the n - - .

Reading is entering into the consciousness of another human being.

By giving, you get, if you don't give, don't expect.

Endurance is nobler than strength and patience than beauty.

I'm happy to sacrifice a big pay cheque for my happiness, if that's not too corny a thing to say. It's probably more naive than mature to say that, maybe, but that's how I feel.

The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.

I think kindness is a sort of gateway virtue - having that simple aspiration can get you into deep water very quickly - in a good way.

The sun was a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed: It was past eight thirty and still light.

I've carried a gun for 10 years. I've carried them in the locker room, and nobody really knows about it. I know how to handle myself, and I stow it away where nobody really knows about it.

Just as I am not upset with somebody who has caught a cold, so too I am not upset with somebody who's caught the faith virus.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.