We are not just flesh and blood. And our hungers are not going to be set aside as just flesh and blood.

Let me tell so much truth. I want to tell the truth in my work. The truth will lead me to all.

And one of my absolute favorite quotes of all-time, one that I've adopted as one of my greatest life mottos: Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: "I'm with you kid. Let's go."

Of course, there are those critics - New York critics as a rule - who say, 'Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it's good but then she's a natural writer.' Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.

I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.

Faith is the evidence of the unseen.

Growing up at my grandmother's table, she always had rice. She might do something as exotic as potatoes or spaghetti, but there was still always rice, just in case you needed a little rice fix.