The rise of fascism in Europe sent most Americans home. Some black American communists who had emigrated to the Soviet Union perished in Stalin's purges of the late 1930s.

I can see criticizing, complaining, protesting - anything but choosing not to vote. Too many people died for us not to vote.

Criticism shouldn't be a performance that upstages the work it's talking about.

Home is the place where there is somebody who does not wish you any pain.

You can get away with anything as long as it works.

I think at the beginning of one's writing life, negative reviews are what one does to get attention and stake out your territory. It's also often a mistake.

It's not nothing when you're abroad and you don't have a washing machine.

People from Europe and people from Africa encountered one another long before the invention of "Europe" and "Africa" and "white people" and "black people."

If you're bored, your readers will be bored. If you're faking it, you won't get the kind of readers you want.

I can see Obama trying to be the president who suggests solutions for everyone who has experienced economic hardship.

Europe was a very contentious subject in literature and yet jazz musicians still depended on Europe. Now it's not such a big deal.

Neatness and cleanliness is not a function of how rich or poor you are but that of mentality and principle.

The movie is someone else's art. But it's great marketing for books.

Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values. God made life simple. It is man who complicates it.

I obviously invented Solipsism

My mind is full of secrets I'm too afraid to tell. My body's full of longing for you to know me well.

I'm probably going to deliver my baby in these [4-inch YSL heels] ... I went to the doctor yesterday and he said, 'You're gonna need to get out of those heels!'

You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea.

The wise man should be prepared for everything that does not lie within his control.

He lies like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, Tormenting himself with his prickles.

And finally I begin to have such a success in my examinations that I found myself in a career you see.