Most of the things that are asked of me as a representative black person, would suggest never are we equal Americans.

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.

Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics.

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.

The way to succeed is never quit. Thats it. But really be humble about it.

Roots is not just a saga of my family. It is the symbolic saga of a people.

Every time an old person dies, it's like a library burning down.

Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.

When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth.

When you clench your fist, no one can put anything in your hand.

You have to deal with the fact that your life is your life.

Perseverance is not a long race it is many short races one after the other.

Just think: in all the clean, beautiful reaches of the solar system, our planet alone is a blot; our planet alone has death.

Whatever you love most, be it sports, pleasure, business or God, that is your god!

Remember, 20 percent of women have inferiority complexes, 70 percent have illusions.

I have read of women who have been strongly, grandly brave. Sometimes I have dreamed that I might be brave. The possibilities of this life are magnificent.

A reactionary is someone who wants to return to a previous state - that's never a possibility in my books. For me, everything's irreversible in the life of a society, as well as an individual's.

You have a deeper connection with people who you have shared experiences with and shared pain.

Dying is strange and hard if it is not our death, but a death that takes us by storm, when we've ripened none within us.

We are asleep people, unconscious people, and this is what is serious. Unfortunately, we think the best of ourselves and not even suspect that we are asleep.

All my knowledge comes from research.