You may not be able to change the course of government, but you can achieve some peace. And books were the path to that. I grew up in a house where books were everywhere.

Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.

An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future.

What sets black people apart is not some deficit in personal responsibility. It's the weight on our shoulders. That is what's actually different. We have the weight and burden of history.

The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for oneself.

I did not know then that this is what life is - just when you master the geometry of one world, it slips away, and suddenly again, you're swarmed by strange shapes and impossible angles.

When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

Racism is, among other things, the unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.

[E]mpathy - not squishy self-serving conflict avoidance - is the hand-maiden, not the enemy, of reason and intellectual inquiry.

You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.

If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.

I like music because it's the only invisible art form.

I hated the ballet, but I liked performing. I did 20 shows, and I couldn't get the smile off my face.

The trouble with putting armor on is that, while it protects you from pain, it also protects you from pleasure.

My job, at the very least, doesn't change at all.

United in this determination and with unshakable faith in the cause for which we fight, we will, with God's help, go forward to our greatest victory.

The great things you intend to do some time must have a beginning if they are ever to be done, so begin something worthwhile today.

Children have a way of forcing you back into the present moment.

Courage conquers all things.

It's easy to get four days a week of training in and I don't spend more than 55-60 minutes in the gym.

People are getting record deals and they can barely sing. We have these new terms for artists that can dance, but they can't sing.