Be who you are and not who someone else thinks you ought to be.

I was raised Baptist, and I like the fact that I got my conscience installed early.

All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.

In order to rise From its own ashes A phoenix First Must Burn.

To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.

Drowning people Sometimes die Fighting their rescuers.

Kindness eases change Love quiets fear

When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing.

We're all capable of climbing so much higher than we usually permit ourselves to suppose.

There is no end To what a living world Will demand of you.

I'm me, and I'm here, and I'm writing.

Don’t dare to dream big, just dream BIG!

If you judge art be its cover, you efface the very essence of it

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor. –Aristotle

It takes some strength to fight. It takes greater strength to choose not to fight.

It isn't that they can't see the solution it's that they can't see the problem.

I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

Authorship has never been with me a matter of choice. I have not done it for amusement, or for money, or for fame, or for any reason but because I could not help it.

Let go of the past and go for the future.

Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he's hired to do.

Dissimulation is the only thing that makes society possible; without its amenities the world would be a bear-garden.