Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

I feel Anglo-American.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

I don’t know who I would have been if I never watched MotoGP.

In heaven an angel is nobody in particular.

In the West, as well as some other parts of the world, the personal sense of ego tends to predominate, whereas in other areas, there is a more collective sense of ego. This collective ego emphasizes the ‚we‘ rather than the ‚I.‘

I’ve never been an intellectual but I have this look.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

I don’t want to be called a point guard, but I can’t stop it.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it – aliens.

Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.

With my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.

I guess if I’m a product, either you’re chocolate, you’re vanilla or you’re butterscotch. You can’t be all three.

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

I have dual citizenship, it just so happens I live in America.

A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.

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.

It’s almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

Because I’m small, I’ve been called things from ‚Happy Feet‘ to ‚Little Face.‘

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

It would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.

People think I’m a celebrity. I’m not a celebrity.

Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

There was a while when I was feeling like, ‚Damn, if I’d just been born black, I would not have to go through all this‘.

I guess it’s flattering that everyone believed I was those characters, but it also is dehumanizing.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

Bob Marley isn’t my name. I don’t even know my name yet.

I don’t really like to call myself a brand, and I don’t like to think of myself as a brand. I’m a singer, a songwriter, a musician and a performer. And an actress, and all the other things that I do. When you add it all together, some might call it a brand, but that’s not my focus.

Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

Such as we are made of, such we be.

I’m almost like three people. There’s me the, Dolly, the person. There’s me, the star. And then there’s me, the manager.

There’s Madeleine, and then there’s ‚Madeleine Albright‘. And I sometimes kind of think, who is this person? Once you become ‚Madeleine Albright‘ it doesn’t go away.

There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

Think about what people are doing on Facebook today. They’re keeping up with their friends and family, but they’re also building an image and identity for themselves, which in a sense is their brand. They’re connecting with the audience that they want to connect to. It’s almost a disadvantage if you’re not on it now.

One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one’s death, one dies one’s life.

In my research, I’ve interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call ‚different‘: scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.

No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.

What a liberation to realize that the ‚voice in my head‘ is not who I am. ‚Who am I, then?‘ The one who sees that.

I’ve been called a moron since I was about four. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. And a lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. I like being a moron.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

I think it is a sin to look at another person as inferior to yourself because of race or because of ethnic background, and I think the greatest thing to do is to pray that God will give you love for them, and I do.

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

I just like to have words that describe things correctly. Now to me, ‚black feminist‘ does not do that. I need a word that is organic, that really comes out of the culture, that really expresses the spirit that we see in black women. And it’s just… womanish.

Nobody has ever convinced me that race is real.

I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don’t know exactly what’s going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what’s inside of them without being part of them.

I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.

You don’t go to Notre Dame to learn something; you go to Notre Dame to be somebody.

Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don’t know at all can just be like, ‚Oh my God – are you Billie?‘

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.