Great books give you a feeling that you miss all day, until you finally get to crawl back inside those pages again.

And if your friends make fun of you for chasing your dream, remember—just lie.

I have never been more proud of the United States than I am this year. We have elected an African-American president. We have the stellar Michelle Obama setting the standard for American women. I simply cannot say it enough: look how far we've come.

I look deep into her rich brown eyes and she look into mine. Law, she got old-soul eyes, like she done lived a thousand years. And I swear I see, down inside, the woman she gone grow up to be. She is tall and straight. She is proud. She got a better haircut. And she is remembering the words I put in her head. Remembering as a full-grown woman.

I've become one of those people who prowl around at night in their cars. God, I am the town's Boo Radley, just like in To Kill A Mockingbird.

....I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.

And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.