“Everyone I’ve worked with has been good. You learn from the good, what’s good, and you learn from the bad what not to do.”

Live stage is being made as you go along. You feel the energy. There’s nothing like a live audience.

I go to my grandchildren. They keep their grandpa informed on what’s going on.

Sometimes we look for those thunderous things to happen in our life for our lives to change or go in the other direction. We seek the miracle. We seek the parting of the seas, the moving of the mountains. But no, its a quiet thing. At least for me it was.

The stage sharpened my creative instrument and encouraged me to go deeper and try new things.

If we plant the right seeds, tomorrow will be better. If you put out good things, then you’ll get good things back. That’s part of our responsibility as entertainers.

I didn’t know who Langston Hughes was till he met me backstage.

You’ve got to make haste while it’s still light of day. My godmother used to say, I don’t want to rust out, I just want to work out. If you stand still long enough, people will throw dirt on you.

Nine years after I had my own accident, I find that in trying to go back to doing those things that I used to do just doesn’t fit. Everything seems to just fall apart. I don’t know why but I think it is because I am this new creature.

Our creator says, ‘Here’s your birth and here’s your death’ – and the rest are the things you learn on your journey. This was my experience – and the choice is, I can lay in the misery, or choose to learn from it and move on.

The death of my daughter is a subject I talk about briefly because there is nothing more tragic.

So be encouraged and dedicate yourself to your dream and if your dream should come my way one day then we will dance upon the boards of life.

When people come and see my show, I try to infuse into them that they can walk away feeling like their lives are a victory.

I used to dance, but now I only move.

You’ve got to make haste while it’s still light of day.

I love sharing my story. It’s endlessly healing.

I want to show people what the possibilities are if you take care of yourself and do the right thing.

I don’t want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.

I think I write for reluctant readers. Of course I want everyone to enjoy my books, but if the kids in the back row who normally don’t pick up a book are engaged with what I’m writing, along with the kids who are big readers anyway, then I really feel like I’ve done my job.

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

I think everyone has to ask, how do companies make their money? Follow the money. And if they’re making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried.

(Some people say “Never let them see you cry.” I say, if you’re so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.)

I learned to ride a ten-speed when I was 4 or 5. My uncle gave me the bike, hand-me-down, and everyone used to stare at me riding up and down this block. I was too short to reach the pedals, so I put my legs through the V of the frame. I was famous. The little kid who could ride the ten-speed.

Everyone says they want community and friendship. But mention accountability or commitment to people, and they run the other way.

Everyone thought I was going to die like a year later, they didn’t know.