I have created a life by stepping out of the box of people's limitations. I call it zigging when others are zagging.

Reading gave me hope.

My name is Oprah Winfrey. I have a talk show. I'm single. I have eight dogs-five golden retrievers, two black labs, and a mongrel. I have four years of college.

I did not believe what I was told about being poor and black and female in Mississippi in 1954.

I truly believe that a woman can have anything she wants - if she's willing to do the hard work it takes to get it.

You are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything.

I was probably toward 8 1/2 when I actually joined the church and was baptized - and, my God, did I take it seriously! I was a zealot who irritated every one of my third-grade friends. They didn't beat me up, but I got labeled "the preacher girl."