I do not want to give my power, my self-esteem, or my autonomy, to any person, place, or thing outside myself... The only thing that matters is how I feel about myself, my personal integrity, and my relationship with my Creator.

A wonderful pastor I know once told me, "Perfectionism is the highest order of self-abuse." So now I try to remind myself that if I engage in perfectionism, I am abusing myself. Period.

I very much believe in things unseen, both of positive and destructive energy, and I have never seen The Exorcist through from start to finish. I find it too realistic, frankly, and too disturbing for me. I absolutely believe in spiritual warfare and have experienced it in my life. So I respect Mr. Friedkin's extraordinary success with that, but it's not a picture I'll ever see.

When I allow myself to feel all my feelings instead of numbing myself to them, they pass more quickly. I spent my entire life telling everyone I was "OK, damn it." But when you surrender to the [uncomfortable] feelings, there are gifts on the other side: Allowing yourself to feel loneliness forces you to reach out. Letting yourself get angry gives you strength, energy and motivation.

I do think prayer is powerful and it is not to be diminished. Some of us who are struggling to put food on the table and are wondering where the next paycheck is coming from or have dangerous health situations and they don't have access to appropriate care do pray - do pray for yourselves and for others.

I think that we give the impression, to carry on your metaphor, that we go a little faster than we actually do. I'm fairly lazy so I'm always interested in slowing down.

When we were growing up, we were so poor that our heritage was the only thing we had. Mama would say, 'Kids, pour more water in the soup. Better days are coming.'