I didn't know it was possible to be successful as a writer, so I wasn't afraid to fail.

There's something to be said about a slightly plump person—you have just enough of too much.

The inevitable is no less a shock just because it is inevitable.

Express everything you like. No word can hurt you. None. No idea can hurt you. Not being able to express an idea or word will hurt you more. Like a bullet.

I was given a dictionary when I was seven, and I read it because I had nothing else to read. I read it the way you read a book.

People don't make changes because things are wonderful.

I would be lost without the feeling of antagonism that people have towards me. I write out of defiance.

People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman.

A great piece of literature encompasses all that is and all that will be.

...yet a memory cannot be trusted, for so much of the experience of the past is determined by the experience of the present.

I'm so used to being misunderstood.

What people say behind your back is your standing in the community.

What rights are those that dare not resist for them?

The first step to boosting your income is to identify where your passion lives and to be true to it.

My fear, is that we are becoming so dependent on technology that if it was all taken away for some reason, some big incident, that we are losing our ability to function without it.

Stroke followed stroke with the velocity of light. The movement of my hand was interrupted only by the act of changing colors.

True karate is this: that in daily life one's mind and body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility, and that in critical times, one be devoted utterly to the cause of justice.

I want to be remembered as a great player, but I guess it will be as a player who got angry on a tennis court.

A cat determined not to be found can fold itself up like a pocket handkerchief if it wants to.

Under the freest constitution ignorant people are still slaves.