You can’t have it all all at once. Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all, but in given periods in time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

He knows my limitations and where I’m a good wife and a good mom.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

It is always your next move.

Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves – and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

Ironically, parenting is a shame and judgment minefield precisely because most of us are wading through uncertainty and self-doubt when it comes to raising our children.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

In 1995, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I had to practice what I preached. I had always said to ‚believe in God‘ and ‚don’t give up‘ to little kids who had been diagnosed with cancer. I then thought if I can’t call on that same God and same strength that I told people about, I would be a liar and a phony.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

We are second-hand people. We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment. We are the result of all kinds of influences, and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves: nothing original, pristine, clear.

I feel that I’ve done what I wanted to do, and that makes me feel fairly content.

I don’t regret anything.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future.

I’m no genius.

Complaining is dangerous business. It can damage or even destroy your relationship with God, your relationships with other people, and even with your relationship with yourself.

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

Some days I totally appreciate everything that’s happening to me, and some days I feel everyone’s waiting for me to mess up.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

We live in ugly times.

I want to put a ding in the universe.

I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

Little things affect little minds.

Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

My philosophy is it’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

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.

Life’s too short to deal with other people’s insecurities.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

I like to recede away from classifications. You might say that indicates a fundamental lack of commitment. I suppose that’s true to some degree.

Marriage is this grand madness, and I think if people knew that, they would perhaps take it more seriously.

I am absolutely my own biggest critic.

Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you got your back turned.

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

The older I get, the better I understand that every day is a gift.

I think, for years, people have been pushed down by religion, and I don’t say that disrespectfully, but they’ve been shown a God that you can’t measure up to.

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

No one that encounters prosperity does not also encounter danger.

Irrespective of age, we mourn for those loved and lost. Mourning is one of the deepest expressions of pure love.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

I want to support other women because of the opportunities I’ve had – and I’ve had a lot of opportunities. What I try as a female director is to do the best job I can and, in the meantime, bring attention to as many other female directors and writers as I can.

I support Real Madrid. I’m a big fan of Cristiano Ronaldo.

I was a housewife, so I learned to write in times off, and I don’t think I ever gave it up, though there were times when I was very discouraged because I began to see that the stories I was writing were not very good, that I had a lot to learn, and that it was a much, much harder job than I had expected.

Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else.

I was married a few times, and one of my husbands was jealous of me writing.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.

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

Learning to live for others isn’t something that just comes naturally to anybody. You have to train yourself to do it.