“A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves – a special kind of double.”

As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.

You need a whole community to raise a child. I have raised two children, alone.

You are your own stories.

I don’t think one parent can raise a child. I don’t think two parents can raise a child. You really need the whole village.

But to find out the truth about how dreams die, one should never take the word of the dreamer.

He wants to put his story next to hers.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race – scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct, it has a social function, racism.

Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous.

Misery don’t call ahead. That’s why you have to stay awake – otherwise it just walks on in your door.

Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough.

Art invites us to know beauty and to solicit it, summon it, from even the most tragic of circumstances.

Beloved, you are my sister, you are my daughter, you are my face; you are me.

Passion is never enough; neither is skill.

My theory is that the world is a difficult place to live in and distraction is the name of the game.

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.

Perhaps the most “spiritual” thing any of us can do is simply to look through our own eyes, see with eyes of wholeness, and act with integrity and kindness.

It’s easy to be a bad ass, it’s easy to act like a bad ass, easy to act like a tough guy, it’s easy to be a diva, and it’s easy to be self absorbed. The list goes on and on but to me, I always just find it more important to be nice and kind.

Be genuinely interested in everyone you meet and everyone you meet will be genuinely interested in you

Kind people aren’t doormats.

All of the words in her head keep her from being lonely but they aren’t always kind.

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.

When you treat people with massive respect and kindness, amazing to me how they return your respect and kindness 100X even though you expected zero in return.

What if we are all here to complement one another. – Kind.