I hope it will come as no surprise that I have something to say.

Political campaigns are the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises.

My roots are African. The birds I remember, the fruits I ate, the trees I climbed, they're African.

When you're threatened, or something hard hits you, acknowledge it, embrace it. Don't pretend that you didn't get hurt - hurt, cry, think about it. And then you let it go and try something else.

If you want to be loved by everyone, don't go into politics.

I mention my age because I find people in this country - women, not men, of course - women are so troubled by their age. There's a culture of youth, and it's a phony culture.

There is a value in taking a stand whether or not anybody may be noticing it, and whether or not it is a risky thing to do.

I grew up in a dictatorship in East Africa.

John will never send a boy or girl in a uniform anywhere in the world because of our need and greed for oil.

As a young woman, I attended Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was then not segregated. But I witnessed the weight of Apartheid everywhere around me.

You can call me Mama T anytime.

Torture. He was torturing her. And she didn't want it to ever stop.

You say he's childish, but he's very professional about business transactions.

It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf.

Punishment follows close on crime.

I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.

The American notion of family is perhaps the most romanticized, deep-rooted, and misery-producing fantasy of the last hundred years.

I don't know how to run your life. I don't know how to run your life. I don't have the authority to run your life. And the Constitution doesn't permit me to run your life.

This poem will never reach its destination. On Rousseau's Ode To Posterity

Remember that everything starts with a thought and thoughts produce in kind.

For me, environment is all. Place — as I was saying about my students — is absolutely essential.