I want to be Maya Angelou when I grow up.

I am convinced that courage is the most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you cannot practice any other virtues consistently. You can be kind for a while; you can be generous for a while; you can be just for a while, or merciful for a while, even loving for a while. But it is only with courage that you can be persistently and insistently kind and generous and fair.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.

I know why the caged bird sings.

I'm not an emotional type person. I don't cry at movies, I don't understand people getting all bent out of shape when celebrities die. Crying like they knew them for real. I was affected by the deaths of River Phoenix and Octavia Butler. But I actually wiped a tear when I heard Luther Vandross died. If music were a religion, Luther would be my god. My sister used to take me to his concerts for my birthday. I'd walk out the concert in tears because that man sang my butt off. Here's a good one and Miss Dionne's is a typical reaction of everyone at one of his shows. I love me some Luther and I still get watery when I think about nothing new from him.

My pastor said that the Christmas season doesn't start for him until he sees a commercial for Chia pets, for me I need to hear 3 songs: This Christmas by Donnie Hathaway (it has to be Donnie Hathaway's version), Do They Know It's Christmas by Band-Aid and Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg. He will be missed.