Dogs are my favorite role models. I want to work like a dog, doing what I was born to do with joy and purpose. I want to play like a dog, with total, jolly abandon. I want to love like a dog, with unabashed devotion and complete lack of concern about what people do for a living, how much money they have, or how much they weigh. The fact that we still live with dogs, even when we don't have to herd or hunt our dinner, gives me hope for humans and canines alike.

Getting my lifelong weight struggle under control has come from a process of treating myself as well as I treat others in every way.

When you wake up in the morning looking for the light, the light will come.

I really feel a sense of responsibility first as a creation of a force that I call God, that's bigger than myself. And because I'm black, I feel the responsibility to that. I feel the responsibility to my womanness. But more importantly, I feel a responsibility to my humanness.

Devote today to something so daring even you can't believe you're doing it.

Know this for sure: When you get the chance, go for it.

Have the courage to follow your passion - and if you don't know what it is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it.