How do I know about a man’s needs for a sex symbol? I’m a girl.

A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.

Be nice to your children. After all, they are going to choose your nursing home.

Then, when I’m in these relationships with people who are also creative, or creative in their own way, what happens is the attraction is initially there and it’s all unicorns and rainbows. And then they hate me.

I can’t deal with someone wanting to take a relationship backward or needing space or cheating on you.

As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.

When people are connected, we can just do some great things. They have the opportunity to get access to jobs, education, health, communications. We have the opportunity to bring the people we care about closer to us. It really makes a big difference.

I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her own way. And second, let her have it.

Every single one of the guys that I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans.

Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.

I think I have had so much blessing – I’ve had my brother, who was brilliant – I think my family came closest to making a genius when they made my brother – Bailey was just all of that. He loved me.

Great loves too must be endured.

The secret to a long marriage is to stay gone.

I don’t know what’s better gettin‘ laid or gettin‘ paid.

Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything.

I think that sexuality is only attractive when it’s natural and spontaneous.

Logically, harmony must come from the heart… Harmony very much based on trust. As soon as use force, creates fear. Fear and trust cannot go together.

Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgment of others.

Young love is wild and outrageous, laughing at moderation and blinding us to common sense.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

I don’t keep people around me that aren’t family. You don’t get to stay. Unless you’re eating at the table with us, you’re not part. We eat together, we cry together, we live together, we die together. Everything that we do is for each other, and we care for another.

Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

A lot of good love can happen in ten years.

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

I don’t know why women want any of the things men have when one of the things that women have is men.

Arthur Miller wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.

Here’s what I’ve learned about deal-breakers. If you have enough natural chemistry with someone, you overlook every single thing that you said would break the deal.

When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine.

So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?

Love does not dominate; it cultivates.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?

My wife told me if there is any rumors about me, it better be about politics and not about my social life.

The true worth of a man is not to be found in man himself, but in the colours and textures that come alive in others.

Within one’s own family, money is not the measure of things, unless the person is an absolute Scrooge. Only the most extreme kind of monster would put a price on everything.

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

Disagreement is something normal.

I don’t have to ‚freedom-kiss‘ my wife when what I really want to do is French-kiss her.

There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other.

You know how big love is? Love is big. love can hold anger; love can even hold hatred.

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.

Men want to make women happy.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.

I’m not saying that love always takes you to heaven. Your life can become a nightmare. But that said, it is worth taking the risk.

If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.

You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s.

Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

I’m not the girl who always has a boyfriend. I’m the girl who rarely has a boyfriend.

Basically my wife was immature. I’d be at home in the bath and she’d come in and sink my boats.

Any man who doesn’t love his mama can’t be no friend of mine.

I think I have a certain respect for people, you know. And I guess a lot of times I expect that respect to go both ways.