All great acheivements require time.

We are not our brother’s keeper we are our brother and we are our sister. We must look past complexion and see community.

I know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.

All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy - but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that's how I am guided.

I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that's me.

I want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine ... before she realizes she's reading.

Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.