I started out thinking of America as highways and state lines. As I got to know it better, I began to think of it as rivers.

The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.

When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society, we will put teachers at the center of the community, where they belong. We don't honor them enough, we don't pay them enough.

It was cold out there, bitter, biting, cutting, piercing, hyperborean, marmoreal cold, and there were all these Minnesotans running around outdoors, happy as lambs in the spring.

Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

...Pomeranians speak only to Poodles and Poodles speak only to God.

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.

There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

The sparrows are preparing for winter, each one dressed in a plain brown coat and singing a cheerful song.

The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars.

Drive your life with care. Look nowhere else than up to your long cherished destination. You can only get there with focus. Blind your eyes from anything else!

How does one say something new and not retell?

The prose, ” Robespierre said. “It’s so clean, no conceits, no show, no wit. He means every word. Formerly, you see, he meant every other word. That was his style.

There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my Son though some days I'm louder about other stuff so it's easy to miss that.

My husband is very supportive and is there for the kids, especially when I'm in projects such as The Color Purple.

Quite often I play roles that require quite a degree of emotional exposure, and they can be very difficult to do.

Love is the law of life.

We're only as sick as the secrets we keep.

It is not big armies that win battles, it is the good ones.