“I guess when all is said and done, if there is one last commentary on me, I would want it to be said that I participated in my life. I was a full participant.”

Happiness isn’t happiness unless there’s a violin-playing goat.

Life is so precious. Please, please, let’s love one another, live each day, reach out to each other, be kind to each other. Peace be with you. God is great.

When I was a child I had a crush on Abraham Lincoln. Why I would choose to reveal this, I know not.

The key to beauty is always to be looking at someone who loves you, really.

I want my kids to know when I’m pissed, when I’m happy and when I’m confounded.

A fever is an expression of inner rage.

I only put clothes on so that I’m not naked when I go out shopping.

People love scandal; people love drama. They love stripping away the layers to see what’s really in there, and they’ll do anything – as well as make it up – to get it.

I’m just an ordinary person who has an extraordinary job.

I want to go someplace where I can marvel at something.

It’s an exceptional time, and it’s always the happiest time if you can be really present and doing the things that you want to be doing and surrounding yourself with the people you love. So, yeah, I’m in a good spot right now.

It’s amazing what can happen if you just put your arm around somebody. It’s the truest thing and the simplest thing that does the most good a lot of times and I hope that we can all just reach out to each other.

I love to cook, and I love to have all my family around the dinner table.

Something that’s such a joy in my life every day – cooking – is this incredible, horrific danger to women around the world.

Whatever happens is going to happen, whether you’re sitting by the phone anxious and worried about it or not.

When you end up happily married, even the failed relationships have worked beautifully to get you there.

God likes your participation. Don’t let pressure and perfection paralyze you.

The thing about nonviolence is that it spreads. When you get people to participate in nonviolent action – whether it’s a fast, a march, a boycott, or a picket line – people hear you, people see you, people are learning from that action.

Sit up straight, listen and participate.

This is supposed to be a participatory democracy and if we’re not in there participating then the people that will manipulate and exploit the system will step in there.

As a black woman, my politics and political affiliation are bound up with and flow from participation in my people’s struggle for liberation, and with the fight of oppressed people all over the world against American imperialism.

Black people will never be free unless black women participate in every aspect of our struggle, on every level of our struggle.

The campaign against the death penalty has been – while a powerful campaign, its participants have been those who attend all of the vigils, a relatively small number of people.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.