Writers are encouraged to "keep 'em laughing" and complain "with good humor" in order to "win" allies. The joke is always on ourselves.

Who wants to live with one foot in hell just for the sake of nostalgia Our time is forever now.

Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave - and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.

Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action, our problems are most complex and, too often, silently borne.

writing is a labor of love and also an act of defiance, a way to light a candle in a gale wind.

We think of poverty as a condition simply meaning a lack of funds, no money, but when one sees fifth, sixth, and seventh generation poor, it is clear that poverty is as complicated as high finance.

The Black writer explains pain to those who inflict it.

Some feminists feel that a woman should never be wrong. We have a right to be wrong.

Truth is simply whatever you can bring yourself to believe.

I think women need kindness more than love. When one human being is kind to another, it's a very deep matter.

Some truth has no nourishment in it.

The Lord God is sacred helper

Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness.

The U.S. government has been preoccupied with health care 'reform, ' but this refers to improving access and insurance coverage and has little or nothing to do with innovation.

I could have easily been too afraid to say 'yes' to Chicago, because it requires so much I haven't done before. If I am a flop at singing and dancing, maybe my love for it will carry me through.

I don't consider my work a job. I consider it a career. And you don't quit a career.

I often think I can see it in myself and in other young writers, this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.

I was very shy, and it was a lot easier for me to communicate if I had a camera between me and other people.

Life cannot be captured in a few axioms. And that is just what I keep trying to do. But it won't work, for life is full of endless nuances and cannot be captured in just a few formulae.

Music sweeps by me as a messenger - Carrying a message that is not for me

There is a way that a younger person can accept the inevitable problem that they're going to die, whereas somebody a little bit older might be overcome.