I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.

Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.

White people really deal more with God and black people with Jesus.

If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.

You must invent your own games and teach us old ones how to play.

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

We love because it's the only true adventure.

A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die.

Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.

I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.

Sacred cows make very poor gladiators.

There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.

I think one of the nicest things that we created as a generation was just the fact that we could say, 'Hey, I don't like white people.'

Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.

When you are skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.

If I could come back as anything - I'd be a bird, first, but definitely the command key is my second choice.

We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end.

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.

A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you're in and take advantage of it.

Follow your image as far as you can no matter how useless you think it is. Push yourself.

For most of my life, I've thought of myself as pretty cool.

Hip-hop is a cultural expression - it's embracing.

I am totally fascinated by people and our history as I understand and continue to explore it. People have so much to give and so far to go and yet we have given and gone a great distance. It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me.

I had a really nice childhood; I had great parents. I earned my allowance by washing dishes, and in the summer I earned my allowance by working in daddy's garden.

I spend a lot of time learning about bird watching.

If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other.

Now, everything I do, I do because I want to. And I believe the best is yet to come.

Poetry and music are very good friends. Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream - they go together.

There are things you stand up for because it's right.

We believe 'Peter Rabbit' because Beatrix Potter believes it. You have to.

Black love is black wealth.

Black Poetry is not for Black People...it is for everybody

Deal with yourself as an individual worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way.

Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.

We love because it is the only true adventure.

The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.

Deal with yourself as a individual, worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way.

If you're a writer, the answer to everything is yes.

Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances.

A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.

I hate failure and that divorce was a Number One failure in my eyes. It was the worst period of my life. Neither Desi nor I have been the same since, physically or mentally.

Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success or failure, however you define those terms.

If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable.

I believe my publisher has shown a great deal of faith in me over a lot of years but I'm not prepared to be so arrogant to say that the long-term literary value of my work would compensate them for a financial failure.

With failure, you just try again.

In God's world, for those who are in earnest, there is no failure. No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain.