I like to go back and read poems that I wrote fifty years ago, twenty years ago, and sometimes they surprise me - I didn't know I knew that then. Or maybe I didn't know it then, and I know more now.

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

I will write on the pages of history what I want them to say. I will be myself. I will speak my own name.

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.

I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I've never been bored in my life.

I know something better is on the road for me.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.