"When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich."

"No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow."

"I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you."

"Take a day to heal from the lies you've told yourself and the ones that have been told to you."

"We write for the same reason that we walk , talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans - because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That's why we paint, that's why we dare to love someone - because we have the impulse to explain who we are."

"My mother's gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin."

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

"Our stories come from our lives and from the playwright's pen, the mind of the actor, the roles we create, the artistry of life itself and the quest for peace."

"When I walk in, they may like me or dislike me, but everybody knows I'm here."

"You saw me bludgeoned by circumstance.Lost, injured, hurt by chance.I screamed to the heavens....loudly screamed....Trying to change our nightmares into dreams..."

"We, the black people, the most displaced, the poorest, the most maligned and scourged, we had the glorious task of reclaiming the soul and saving the honor of the country. We, the most hated, must take hate into our hands and by the miracle of love, turn loathing into love. We, the most feared and apprehensive must take fear and by love, change it into hope. We, who die daily in large and small ways, must take the demon death and turn it into life.-Martin Luther King Jr."

"Language is man's way of communicating with his fellow man and it is language alone which separates him from the lower animals."

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."

"When I cook for my family on Christmas, I make feijoada, a South American dish of roasted and smoked meats like ham, pork, beef, lamb, and bacon - all served with black beans and rice. It's festive but different."

"Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable."

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."

"Life loves the liver of it."

"The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise."

"My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself."

"The"b word and the "n word are like poison, whether you take poison from a vial or pour it into Bavarian crystal, it is still poison."

"Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."

"Achievement brings its own anticlimax."

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."

"Segregation shaped me education liberated me."

"We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay - and rise!"

"The need for change bulldozed road down the center of my mind."