My people couldn't have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better. And there's some songs from the 19th and 18th century that say [sings], "By and by, by and by, I will lay down, this heavy load." And I mean, so many songs that spoke of hope and understand it better by and by. Amazing songs. So that the slaves, just knowing that he, she, did not have the right legally to walk within one inch away from where the slave owner dictated, and yet the same person, wrote and sang with fervor, "If the lord wants somebody, here am I, send me." It's amazing.

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

We agreed that great men and women should be forced to live as long as possible. The reverence they enjoyed was a life sentence, which they could neither revoke nor modify.

Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

Give yourself time just to be with yourself.

Still, when it looked like the sun wasn't going to shine anymore, God put a rainbow in the clouds.