When I write, I don't translate for white readers.... Dostoevski wrote for a Russian audience, but we're able to read him. If I'm specific, and I don't overexplain, then anyone can overhear me.

I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies.

If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

I couldn't sleep 5/23/2016 and 5/24/2016 the time between them the night which puts differences between the day and split them.

Call Loretta Lynch for a vote. Get her confirmed. Put her in place. Let her do her job.

Ultimately the white man should leave the United States and the black people should go back to Africa.

I won't ever shy away from a fight and if it makes sense down the road, I'll do it. But it will be on my terms.

When you hold positive thoughts and images in your mind, you raise your power level and you create a vibratory energy around those thoughts - those thoughts are more likely to manifest.

When I do public speaking, I ask the audience, "Who has a family member, a neighbor, a friend with some form of disability?" Every single hand goes up. We're all connected.

Being honest is what counts. To make the ordinary extraordinary is so much better than starting with the extraordinary.

Turn the page, continue reading, and let the next story begin.

The best thing about being on tour is meeting the fans.