One thing that I tell people all the time is, ‚I’m not going to answer a call from you after nine o’clock at night or before nine o’clock in the morning unless it’s an emergency.‘

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

I remember the first time I heard a teenager say ‚LOL.‘ Just what? But it means ‚laugh.‘ Why don’t you just laugh? What are you doing?

I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Silence is argument carried out by other means.

When you stop caring what people think, you lose your capacity for connection. When you’re defined by it, you lose our capacity for vulnerability.

Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.

It’s considered acceptable in our culture to approach perfect strangers, as often or not who may be in extremis, and evangelise. I don’t see why that’s considered a normal thing.

I have no time to think about other writers. I am too busy with my own problems.

I learned from my dog long before I went to Gombe that we weren’t the only beings with personalities. What the chimps did was help me to persuade others.

The American public’s a lot more sophisticated than we all give them credit for. And on complicated issues, I’m going to give them straight answers. And if it takes more than three minutes, I’m going to do it.

I think everyone should approach relationships from the perspective of playing it straight and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Until he establishes that this is a game. And if it’s a game, you need to win. The best thing to do is just walk away from the table.

We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.

He who talks more is sooner exhausted.

Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.

Tell the children the truth.

Saying nothing… sometimes says the most.

My friend has a baby. I’m recording all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant.

One must steer, not talk.

Sometimes it’s a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.

I’m not really good at fun-to-know, human interest stuff. We’re not ‚celebrities‘, whose life itself is a performance. Good or bad or ugly, we are our words. They’re what people meet.

If I can get my dress on, my weight is under control.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.

I don’t care if you get up in the morning and don’t wash, don’t put any make-up on, don’t do your hair, even, but you have to have clothes if you want to look different.

The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me ‚understand‘ something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

It’s physical. If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place you have to be strong physically. That is a very important thing. Physically and mentally you have to be strong.

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

The American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press.

Training and resting takes up most of my time.

It’s hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I’m talking to them.

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

Music fills in for words a lot of the time when people don’t know what to say, and I think music can be more eloquent than words.

Sometimes, you might meet somebody that you love that’s turning into a ‚they.‘ My key is invite them to Miami and take them to the ocean and let them jump off the boat in the ocean, on the sand bar, and cleanse off and pray and then go take a shower, and hopefully the ‚they‘ is out of you.

A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything.

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It’s inflammatory.

You gotta water your plants. Nobody can water them for you.

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?

Among the letters my readers write me, there is a certain category which is continuously growing, and which I see as a symptom of the increasing intellectualization of the relationship between readers and literature.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

Ain’t nothing like a good cry.

The problem with having a sense of humor is often that people you use it on aren’t in a very good mood.

I can unload my opinion on anybody at anytime.

The first time you say something, it’s heard. The second time, it’s recognized, and the third time it’s learned.

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.

I hold a lot of things in. I’m always making sure everybody is okay. I usually don’t rage; I usually don’t curse. So for me, it’s a great thing to be able to scream and say whatever I want.

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.

The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.