I’ve always felt heroic about my life… As a child, I remember little girls in the playground moaning about how boys could do more than they could. I didn’t think that was the case at all. My parents didn’t treat me as a girl.

If you give a person a fish, they’ll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they’ll fish for a lifetime.

God has equipped you to handle difficult things. In fact, He has already planted the seeds of discipline and self-control inside you. You just have to water those seeds with His Word to make them grow!

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

I’m trying to show everybody that I’m a girl, and I’m five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It’s your world, too!

Funk, I don’t think I have anything to do with funk. I’ve never considered myself funky.

Pride is pleasure arising from a man’s thinking too highly of himself.

When I was 5, some financial things happened, and I moved seven times in a year. We moved from apartment to apartment, sometimes living with friends. My mom would always say, ‚Don’t get comfortable, because we may not be here long.‘

Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life-sized.

I had one incident where my daughter said that a girl asked if she was a brown person. I said, ‚We’re black. You have black people, white people, Chinese people, Hispanic people; we’re all brought up differently.‘

Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn’t be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.

A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

If you’re treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person. If certain things are described to you as being real they’re real for you whether they’re real or not.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.

The kids are old enough now – I just want to let them be kids. I don’t want to comment on them too much. They’re at an age where I just want to let them be kids.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

As a kid, I got three meals a day. Oatmeal, miss-a-meal and no meal.

I have worked hard since my childhood and worked as a labourer. I put my mind and heart into it.

I was lousy in school. Real screwed-up. A moron. I was antisocial and didn’t bother with the other kids. A really bad student. I didn’t have any brains. I didn’t know what I was doing there. That’s why I became an actor.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

My parents were divorced by the time I was even conscious – like, I don’t remember them ever being together.

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

I’m always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.

I was a proponent of the ERA.

Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they’re already asleep.

As a father, I always want my son to be perfect. When he was young, I tried to train him in martial arts, but he said, ‚I don’t want to become like Bruce Lee’s son, with everybody telling me how good my father was.‘ I just think my son is too lazy.

I will not be triumphed over.

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn’t mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten high school.

There are a number of women who have brought about immense change in society.

I want kids to know: Don’t wait for somebody to come along and tell you you’re special. Because that may never happen.

She is a peacock in everything but beauty.

Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness.

We’re not a fragile people. We’re not a frightful people. Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way. We don’t look to be ruled.

Whenever something went wrong when I was young – if I had a pimple or if my hair broke – my mom would say, ‚Sister mine, I’m going to make you some soup.‘ And I really thought the soup would make my pimple go away or my hair stronger.

Girls shouldn’t worry about being the equal of men in the business world.

I’ve never been a feminist.

Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.

I would not like to be the only woman on the court.

I owe nothing to Women’s Lib.

I definitely don’t plead guilty to being a heartthrob.

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.

When I was a boy, I always saw myself as a hero in comic books and in movies. I grew up believing this dream.

To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

I can encourage my daughter to love her body, but what really matters are the observations she makes about my relationship with my own body.

I have a lot of other stuff to accomplish before I get to kids. Whenever the time is right, I’ll just know. If I had a girl, she’d probably be really rebellious. She would be like a bundle of karma. I would love to bring them up in Barbados.

I’ve never been a hands-on dad. I’m not ashamed to admit it, but you can’t run a restaurant and be home for tea at 4:30 and bath and change nappies.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

I’ve never seen myself as a star. I never call myself a celebrity or a superstar, whatever.

Black men don’t like to be called ‚boys,‘ but women accept being called ‚girls.‘

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

My parents taught me never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion.

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.