I think that too many strangers were in her [Nina Simone's] life, and not enough people that she knew and loved.

Writing is a conversation with reading; a dialogue with thinking. All conversations with older people contain repetition. Some of the ideas mean a lot to me, just interesting, so I both embrace and attack the ideas because I found them, well, delightful.

Photographers direct the eye toward a particular object. We who write, one hopes, are directing the heart and the soul.

We are all either wheels or connectors. Whichever we are we must find truth and balance, which is a bicycle. Trust and balance are also essential to true love.

The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.

If now isn't a good time for the truth I don't see when we'll get to it.

If I can't do what I want to do, then my job is to not do what I want to do. It's not the same thing, but it's the best thing I can do.