I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I'm a human being, too. And I'm on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.

There's something beautiful about the fact that Obama was not just elected, but elected decisively across racial, and socio-economic and cultural groups and that we all celebrated in his win.

I am always talking about the human condition and about American society in particular: what it is like to be human, what makes us weep, what makes us fall and stumble and somehow rise and go on from darkness into darkness and that darkness carpeted.

A mother's love liberates.

What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.

I try to see every day as a celebration.