When I was 40 and looking at 60, it seemed like a thousand miles away. But 62 feels like a week and a half away from 80. I must now get on with those things I always talked about doing but put off.

Each and every one of you has the power, the will and the capacity to make a difference in the world in which you live in

Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience.

In the gun game, we are the most hunted. The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children.

I am who I am despite what America has put before me. I am who I am despite the obstacles that we have all faced based upon race and based upon social and spiritual humiliation.

You can cage the singer but not the song.

Art in its highest form is art that serves and instructs society and human development.

Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

These children and their parents know that getting an education is not only their right, but a passport to a better future - for the children and for the country.

We've come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended.

Where is the raised voice of black America? Why are we mute?

The moral systems of religion, I think, are super important.

Soon the cold would force them inside, so they clutched at lost summer.

The main thing needed to make men happy is intelligence.

The first few months of my life of every year are in total retreat. I don't see anybody except my husband and my dog, I don't talk to anybody, and I just write.

The test of character is not persistence when you expect a light at the end of the tunnel. The true test is performance and persistence when you see no light coming.

Friends are the fruitcake of life - some nutty, some soaked in alcohol, some sweet.

People like to see honest persons. So I certainly will advise many young people who want to participate in politics, honesty is the best policy.

It has been well observed that few are better qualified to give others advice than those who have taken the least of it themselves.

I think every family is dysfunctional, and some manage to control it better than others.

I always want another actor to shine in my scene because it makes the film stronger. I would encourage people to scene steal, because filmmaking is a collaborative effort.