There is nothing a person can't do, and there should be nothing a human being didn't care about. It was the most positive encouragement I could have hoped for.

I am never proud to participate in violence, yet, I know that each of us must care enough for ourselves, that we can be ready and able to come to our own defense when and wherever needed.

Every December, I host a tree-trimming party. I serve chili with cornbread and lots of good wine. It's a wonderful party, and it shows how much adults like to play.

I want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine... before she realizes she's reading.

Glasses clinked and voices rubbed each other.

Segregation shaped me; education liberated me.

We are all human; therefore, nothing human can be alien to us.