Writers owed their readers a duty of care, of mercy.

Everyone knew as much as they needed to know to be happy.

I was irritated by the way he conflated his own shifting needs with an impersonal destiny. I want it, therefore...it's in the stars!

In difficult moments it’s sometimes a good idea to ask yourself what it is you most want to be doing and consider how it can be achieved. If it can’t, move on to the second best thing.

The constrained lives of his characters made me wonder how my own existence might appear in his hands.

One can learn anything, anything at all, I thought, if provided by a gifted and passionate teacher.

Music is the very cement that has not just held the black community together but holds black selves together in a fundamental sense.

Doing the right thing at all costs is an absolute, and only a sith deals in absolutes.

To persevere in one's duty, and be silent is the best answer to calumny

Short is my date, but deathless my renown.

There will come a day A hazy day in May Or a storm in mid-December When you need someone Just to have a little fun Then I could be the perfect girl for you.

When I was a kid, I'd kneel down at the side of my bed every night before I went to sleep, and my mother and I would say a Greek prayer to the Virgin Mary.

Today at least I live in a better place

Opinion is called the queen of the world; it is so, for when reason opposes it, it is condemned to death. It must rise twenty times from its ashes to gradually drive away the usurper.

Well, you need to have at least one black friend, otherwise people think you're racist