Not only was I not born to be a slave; I was not born to hope to become the equal of the slave master.

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.

Fires can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it.

Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know.

If the relationship of father to son could really be reduced to biology, the whole earth would blaze with the glory of fathers and sons.

You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

The American idea of racial progress is measured by how fast I become white.

That’s love: Two lonely persons keep each other safe and touch each other and talk to each other.

If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good

… the secret in handling fear is to move yourself from a position of pain to a position of power.

Pain is like a healing emotional fever.

Family, monogamy, romance. Everywhere exclusiveness, a narrow channelling of impulse and energy.

When your parents split up, it's impossible to delude yourself about fairytale romance and happy endings.

Damn, but science is just a constant feed of cool new facts and theories. Theology doesn't come close.

Filming is repetition and many takes

I have been absolutely hag-ridden with ambition. If I could wish to have anything in the world it would be to be free of ambition.