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

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.

The economist John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run, we are all dead. If he were around today he might say that, in the long run, we are all on Social Security and Medicare.

I am naturally confident.

You can't second-guess yourself as a filmmaker.

There's nothing half so real in life as the things you've done... inexorably, unalterably done.

I can tell you that going to the Oscars is not as exciting as people think, at least for me.

If people feel 4-4-2 is the way forward in international football, they'll have to wait until I'm out of a job.

The way out of trouble is never as simple as the way in.

People who don't like me talk about it as though I'm trash because I have tattoos. I find that insane because it's 2008, not the 1950s. Tattoos aren't limited to sailors. It's a form of art I find beautiful. I love it.

In a society that glorifies the pioneers, it's easy to think that an endeavor is only worth pursuing if you can be the first to pursue it.

But the fact that we had to devalue by 40% at once means that Malawians are feeling the shock, the impact of that huge devaluation and particularly rural people, the poor are the ones that are going to be most affected. That is why there is the austerity plan.