It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love ... You can't own a human being.

Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it.

There's a difference between writing for a living and writing for life. If you write for a living, you make enormous compromises.... If you write for life, you'll work hard; you'll do what's honest, not what pays

If you can't count, they can cheat you. If you can't read, they can beat you.

[Obama is ] creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom . . . [He is] the man for this time.

She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.

I sang "O Holy Night" in a school choir. My mother came and listened to me and complimented me. So that was the high point. I cannot sing a note.