American straightforwardness is almost as disarming as Americans invariably think it is.

A woman who is willing to be herself and pursue her own potential runs not so much the risk of loneliness, as the challenge of exposure to more interesting men - and people in general.

Though it be a thrilling and marvellous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so - doubly dynamic - to be young, gifted and black.

One cannot live with sighted eyes and feeling heart and not know and read of the miseries which affect the world.

The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.

There is always something left to love. And if you haven't learned that, you ain't learned nothing.

Never be afraid to sit a while and think.

I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care.

Do I remain a revolutionary? Intellectually -- without a doubt. But am I prepared to give my body to the struggle or even my comforts? This is what I puzzle about.

This is one of the glories of man, the inventiveness of the human mind and the human spirit: whenever life doesn't seem to give an answer, we create one.

The grim possibility is that she who 'hides her brains' will, more than likely, end up with a mate who is only equal to a woman with 'hidden brains' or none at all.

Peace should be the only highway of life that we should build all over the world.

Mr. Jesmond made a peculiar noise rather like a hen who has decided to lay an egg and then thought better of it.

Live the present intensely and fully, do not let the past be a burden, and let the future be an incentive. Each person forges his or her own destiny.

I just try to play music from my heart and bring as much beauty as I can to as many people as I can. Just give them other alternatives, especially people who arent exposed to creative music.

There is no plan B for passion

I am not fundamentally a musician, I am fundamentally a human being.

Men play at tragedy because they do not believe in the reality of the tragedy which is actually being staged in the civilised world

The reality of a poem is a very ghostly one. It suggests, it suggests, it suggests again.

In my personal life I've made a lot of compromises. I don't live comfortably. I've lived out of a suitcase for the last 15 years. I have lived without a dime to my name, for a very long time.