Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it.

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

Laugh as much as you can.

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning "Good morning" at total strangers.

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.

Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it.

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

Poetry is music written for the human voice.

One would say of my life, 'born loser, had to be'--but it's not the truth. In the black community, however bad it looks, there's a lot of love and so much humor.

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