Reduce your humanity through what Jules Feiffer called little murders. The minute I hear someone trying to demean me, I know that that person means to have my life. And I will not give it to them. When a person commits these little murders, and then you catch him or her at it, he or she might say, "Oh, I didn't mean it." But make no mistake: It is an assassination attempt.

My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

I thought I'm going to die. So why can't I do everything? And what is this idea that I worked all day yesterday, so I'm tired today? I've never believed that.I thought, "Just suppose I could choreograph a ballet." And I did it. Suppose I could teach dance at the theater in Cleveland. And I did it. Suppose I could sing for a living - that I could stop these two jobs as a waitress and a salesperson.

We need to haunt the house of history and listen anew to the ancestors' wisdom.

I don't think there's such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind.

At our best, we're all teachers