Women can stand a beating except when it is with their own weapons.

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.

If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death by my own success.

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.

Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud.

Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, When Allah loves a people, He tries them.

But I had no idea who this person might be, or who any of the people might be who sat at that table and watched me at the door and claimed to have feelings not exactly for me, but at me.

No matter how "normal" people look, living "ordinary" lives, everyone has a story to tell. And may be, just like you, everyone else is a misfit too.

Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in origin. Its transmission was oral.

If a man sets out to hate all the miserable creatures he meets, he will not have much energy left for anything else; whereas he can despise them, one and all, with the greatest ease.

Let me say this: I only expect the black media to uphold the standards of excellence in journalism and when you do that, you have to go in with a neutral mind.

My mother and I were like two continents moving slowly but inexorably apart; my father, the bridge builder, constantly extending the fragile edifice he had constructed to connect us.

American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope.

We have a middle class that lives on a razor blade. So sometimes when you say poverty, you neglect a large portion of the population.

I really like to talk about my work in a way that is complicated.