It’s rare for anyone to value the opinions of a teenage girl.

I’ve never bought into any sort of hard and fast, this-box/that-box characterization. People are individuals. Yes, they may be expected to be a particular way. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be that way.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

Politics have no relation to morals.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

People always say when they meet me that I’m not what they expect. I assume they think I’m this super dark and depressing guy, but I like to channel all of those emotions into my work.

The ‚public‘ scares me, but people I trust.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

The more people smoke herb, the more Babylon fall.

It’s not what you pay a man, but what he costs you that counts.

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

I just use fashion as an excuse to talk about politics. Because I’m a fashion designer, it gives me a voice, which is really good.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

I myself have been on my own and utterly independent since I graduated. I haven’t belonged to any company or any system. It isn’t easy to live like this in Japan.

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.

We live in a bewildering world.

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

It’s an endless proving of myself, that I really am a musician, that I have something to offer in the room. That women can be musicians, women can be rock stars, women can be more than an objectified idea of a pop star.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

We don’t have to let extremists define us.

The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

Know your worth! People always act like they’re doing more for you than you’re doing for them.

We get paid for bringing value to the market place.

The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

I always say that people should not rush to change religions. There is real value in finding the spiritual resources you need in your home religion.

I’m a bookworm. I know with my physical appearance that I don’t look like the typical reader. I’m in Barnes & Noble all the time, and you can look at people that look like they are supposed to be in there. I am in there, pants sagging, hat backwards.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

I thought ‚Heller‘ was a very bad decision.

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

I am not afraid… I was born to do this.

Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.

I have never entered into any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one’s temper and disturb one’s quiet.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

Boldness be my friend.

Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.

Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.

Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway.

And I try to give the best bang for the buck. I love performing more than anything else.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

When red-haired people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn.

I read so much stuff that black women say, especially about my relationship. ‚Oh, he left his black wife to go be with some exotic chick.‘ First of all, my girl is black: she’s Jamaican.

If you look at the history of our country over the last 100 years, there have been periods where science and research have been celebrated. They were really kind of held up as heroes in society, which encouraged a generation of people to go into these fields.

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

In France there are, I think, less than one per cent of people who are too skinny.

Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking. Don’t let the fear rise up into your mind. Use the power of the Now. Fear cannot prevail against it.

Since I have come to America, I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don’t think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come, but while living in America, I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside.

Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with ‚what can I give‘ spirit.