I'm not sure if resilience is ever achieved alone. Experience allows us to learn from example. But if we have someone who loves us-I don't mean who indulges us, but who loves us enough to be on our side-then it's easier to grow resilience, to grow belief in self, to grow self-esteem. And it's self-esteem that allows a person to stand up.

Laugh and dare to try to love somebody, starting with yourself. You must love yourself first, of course, and you must protect yourself so that nobody overrides you, overrules you, or steps on you. Just say, 'Just a minute. I'm worth everything, dear.'

To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

The only way you can be a mark is if you want something for nothing. If you're greedy, you're set up.

Because of our routines we forget that life is an ongoing adventure.

I love the melodies in the Old Testament, how preachers highlight them when they read from the Scripture. But I was influenced forever by the New Testament. I love the Beatitudes, informing us that the meek shall inherit the earth.