We're going to have to debunk the myth that Africa is a heaven for black people -- especially black women. We've been the mule of the world there and the mule of the world here.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.

Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.

I don’t need a certain number of friends, just a number of friends I can be certain of.

Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.

'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.

It's what we do, we continue on. Yet, what is the point? There is nothing ahead of us when there is nothing left of us.

Stand at the top of a cliff and jump off and build your wings on the way down.

One cannot judge a man for the sins of his family.

I'm anti-tax, but I'm pro-carbon tax.

Your actions in passing, pass not away, for every good work is a grain of seed for eternal life.

In America, we believe in peace through strength, and that's what we will have.

Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves.

I am in deep shock. I have lost a beloved friend [George Michael] - the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist. My heart goes out to his family and all of his fans.

I was on a well-beaten path of actors - what we all call 'the Law and Order route'. I spent two years of auditioning for everything... and then 'The Wire' came up.

Now because he saved the day they're making another solo Hulk movie after the second Avengers comes out.