I don't think modesty is a very good virtue, if it is a virtue at all. A modest person will drop the modesty in a minute. It's a learned affectation.

Growing up at my grandmother's table, she always had rice. She might do something as exotic as potatoes or spaghetti, but there was still always rice, just in case you needed a little rice fix.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.

There are some nights when sleep plays coy, aloof and disdainful. And all the wiles that I employ to win its service to my side are useless as wounded pride, and much more painful.

In spite of everything that was done to me and my race, in spite of the adversity and the bitter moments, again we rise.

Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway."