Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

Life is like a tennis game. You can't win without serving.

Drummed into me, above all, by my dad, by the whole family, was that without your good name, you would be nothing.

In America you're conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ's sake?

I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.

Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.

I'm learning to use others' weaknesses. I don't hammer a man's soft spot constantly, because he may strengthen it. I just save it as a trump up my sleeve for moments when I really need a point.