Try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

Without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

If you're a human being, you can attempt to do what other human beings have done. We don't understand talent any more than we understand electricity.

I agreed a long time ago, I would not live at any cost. If I am moved or forced away from what I think is the right thing, I will not do it.

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.

Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.