My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

Without defeats, how do you really know who the hell you are? If you never had to stand up to something - to get up, to be knocked down, and to get up again - life can walk over you wearing football cleats. But each time you do get up, you're bigger, taller, finer, more beautiful, more kind, more understanding, more loving. Each time you get up, you're more inclusive. More people can stand under your umbrella.

The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more blood.

Sometimes guns really matter. Protecting those who need protection - children, women, minorities in rough parts of town, old folks living in places where cops aren't nearby. Guns are true empowerment for the powerless.

We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat so that we can know who we are. So that we can see, "Oh, that happened, and I rose. I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose. I didn't run away; I rose right where I'd been knocked down." That's how you get to know yourself.

A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.