music became my refuge and then my salvation.

Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

The best thing about living... Is the chance to keep on doing it!

My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.

Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.

You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way. But the slanting process is so subtle that you frequently don't realize how you're being slanted until very late in the game.

I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.

If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.

Make your desire for a better life stronger than your desire to stay in misery.

My wife has a good sense of humor, and instead of calling me psychic with my novels, she simply refers to me as being 'psycho.' That's because multiple things in my books have come true.

Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.

I'm moving to a point that I'm fed up with the N.C.A.A. dictation.

When people come together, they become much more productive.

Il n'y a de réalité que dans l'action. (There is no reality except in action.)

Loneliness does not worry me; life is difficult enough, putting up with yourself and with your own habits.

Comedy is a noble art.

O would, beloved, that you lay Under the dock-leaves in the ground, While lights were paling one by one.