I am, as a character, at times, a little overbearing. I recognize that.

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

The stories are not autobiographical, but they’re personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I’ve learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.

Whatever good things we build end up building us.

I’ve never been a jealous person, and I’ve never felt built up by someone else’s failure – that’s a cheap thrill.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men… We are who we are because they were who they were. It’s wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.

I believe that having a spiritual life is so important in everybody’s life.

I feel that sin and evil are the negative part of you, and I think it’s like a battery: you’ve got to have the negative and the positive in order to be a complete person.

I built a label at the same time I built a career.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

Mine is better than ours.

Let go of offence. Let go of fear. Let go of revenge. Don’t live angry, let go now!

In the egoic state, your sense of self, your identity, is derived from your thinking mind – in other words, what your mind tells you about yourself: the storyline of you, the memories, the expectations, all the thoughts that go through your head continuously and the emotions that reflect those thoughts. All those things make up your sense of self.

Thirty was so strange for me. I’ve really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.

I grew up with the sea, and poverty for me was sumptuous; then I lost the sea and found all luxuries gray and poverty unbearable.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

I am happy and I’m single.

I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and He never did.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

When I was writing ‚Kitchen Confidential,‘ I was in my 40s, I had never paid rent on time, I was 10 years behind on my taxes, I had never owned my own furniture or a car.

In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

All ways of living can be sanctified, and for each individual, the ideal way is that to which our Lord leads him through the natural development of his tastes and the pressure of circumstances.

It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.

Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.

You have a nice personality, but not for a human being.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.

It doesn’t take much to make me angry.

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

Well, I was 29 years old when I came to the United States Senate, and I have learned a lot.

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.

You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

I am a child but I have to think and act like a woman, this business forces you to.

Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.

Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re changing, emotionally as well as physically?

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Everyone is different. Everyone has different teams they’ve played on, coaches they’ve played for.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

I’m getting a wrinkle above my eyebrow because I just can’t stop lifting it, and I love that you know.