I sustain myself with the love of family.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.

The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the Black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered only the crumbs from his country's table but by ingenuity and courage is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast. Hence the janitor who lives in one room but sports a robin's-egg-blue Cadillac is not laughed at but admired, and the domestic who buys forty-dollar shoes is not criticized but is appreciated. We know that they have put to use their full mental and physical powers. Each single gain feeds into the gains of the body collective.

Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives. The struggle for equality continues unabated, and the woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory.

Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.

You forgive yourself for every failure because you are trying to do the right thing. God knows that and you know it. Nobody else may know it.