Every human being on the face of the earth has a steel plate in his head, but if you lie down now and then and get still as you can, it will slide open like elevator doors, letting in all the secret thoughts that have been standing around so patiently, pushing the button for a ride to the top. The real troubles in life happen when those hidden doors stay closed for too long.

Our earlier lives aren't wrong, they are just pre-construction. Our lives are meant to unfold, to evolve, and that's good. The only wrong thing, perhaps, is permanently hesitating on the verge of courage, which would prevent this process from taking place.

The True Self is not our creation, but God's. It is the self we are in our depths. It is our capacity for divinity and transcendence.

You think you want to know something, and then once you do, all you can think about is erasing it from your mind.

I said, "If I was a Negro girl-" He placed his fingers across my lips so I tasted his saltiness. "We can't think of changing our skin," he said. "Change the world-that's how we gotta think."

Stopping is a spiritual art. It is the refuge where we drink life in.

It's always been my hope that I would write a story that would inspire and would connect with people in a way that would touch hearts.