Sometimes when people have kids young, they're not ready.

In life, there is always that special person who shapes who you are, who helps to determine the person you become.

I don't have control over how people choose to perceive me. The only thing I have control over is my writing.

When I was a little kid I thought I would grow up to be black and sing jazz in nightclubs.

From my experience, forgiving is the only way to survive.

Whenever people ask me how I manage to get through this whole crazy time of being incredibly famous and sort of an icon and supposedly a role model and all of this insanity, I always cite my family and then books. I don't know what I would have done without books.

I never really felt like I belonged in California.