Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn't be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

One must learn to care for oneself first, so that one can then dare to care for someone else.

My encouragement to you is to go tomorrow to the library.

Martin Luther King was a human being with a brilliant mind, a powerful heart, and insight, and courage and also with a sense of humor. So he was accessible.

I'm young as morning and fresh as dew. Everybody loves me and so do you.

I do not need to know all things. I remind myself that it is sufficient that I know what I know and know that without believing that I will always know what I know or that what I know will always be true.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.