Take the blinders from your vision take the padding from your ears and confess you've heard me crying and admit you've seen my tears.

The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.

I think the more we know the better we are. I mean not just facts. The more we know about each other, the closer we are to learn something about our selves.

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

It is imperative that young white men and women study the black American history. It is imperative that blacks and whites study the Asian American history.

No one can take the place of a friend, no one.