The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

When things were very bad his soul just crawled behind his heart and curled up and went to sleep

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision.

I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.

Language is man's way of communicating with his fellow man and it is language alone which separates him from the lower animals.

Few, if any, survive their teens.

It may be enough, however, to have it said that we survive in exact relationship to the dedication of our poets (include preachers, musicians, and blues singers).

Think of another as you want God to think of you.

Music was a balm for any weary soul. It could either lift a person out of the doldrums or comfort him if there was no other solace to be had.

A lot of parents make you feel very awkward when you meet them.

How happily some people would live if they troubled themselves as little about other people's business as about their own.

All beings, including each one of us, enemy and friend alike, exist in patterns of mutuality, interconnectedness, co-responsibility and ultimately in unity.

My love of nationalism is that my country may become free, and if need be, the whole of the country die, so that the human race may live.

I am proud only of those days that pass in undivided tenderness.

Every weekend in history has worked for movies if the movie connects.

I've heard that the two plants that make Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis) in the Amazon, are increasingly difficult to find in the wild.