Always in the black spirituals there's that promise that things are going to be better, by and by.

Number of things happen after I was 50. One, you are hopefully secure in what you want to do - which means that you don't spend a lot of time chewing on your knuckles about your reason for being here.Also, you're at your most beautiful. No woman is ever more beautiful than she is at 50.

I'm happy to be a writer - of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn't a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.

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

I’ve got a magic charm That I keep up my sleeve, I can walk the ocean floor And never have to breathe.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

I want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine ... before she realizes she's reading.