The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.

I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.

I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.

Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

My soul found ease and rest in the companionship of books.

Self-discipline is a prerequisite to progress.

Every day thousands of people bury good ideas because they are afraid to act on them.And afterwards, the ghosts of these ideas come back to haunt them.

The most momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

I'm a control freak. If you're going to slap my name on something, I would like to control it.

You follow any family around, you're going to see elation, you're going to see disharmony.

You must be either the servant or the master, the hammer or the anvil.

You will never see what you are capable of, although you must seek to.

Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.

The problem is the Palestinians don't recognize the legitimacy of Israel.

Never saw the branch you are sittin on, unless they are trying to hang you from it.