You are a person of the greatest importance when you are a mother of a family. Just do your job right and your kids will love you.

Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.

Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.

We are all gifted. That is our inheritance.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk

Many people know how to criticize, but few know how to praise.

Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.

Today or any day that phone may ring and bring good news.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

All the men in my life have been two things: an epic and an epidemic.

It is good to put your life in other people's hands.

Every moment is utterly unique and will not be continued in eternity. This fact gives life its poignancy and should concentrate your attention on what you are experiencing now.

It is in the little moments that we live the longest. Everything else is existence.

You know, 97 percent of the time, if you come into a hospital, everything goes well. But three percent of the time, we have major complications.

Arrogance can be deadly.

I'll have you know that I am not a failed Third Division footballer. I am a failed Second Division footballer.

Infinite Mind will put ideas into your mind, words into your mouth, creativity into your hands, boundless opportunity before you, and guiding light on your way.

We all of us waited for him to die. The family sent him a check every month, and hoped he'd get on with it quietly, without too much vulgar fuss.

Liberty, Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order.

I'd seen musicians act, and it scares me. And they make more money than me.