I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.
You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. I'm finished with it.'
Whenever I'm around some who is modest, I think, 'Run like hell and all of fire.' You don't want modesty, you want humility.
It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.
I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.
The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.
While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man.
Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.
I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.
I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.
I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.
When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess.
I know that I've been guided by God. I am obedient.
The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.
I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.
I love the melodies in the Old Testament, how preachers highlight them when they read from the Scripture. But I was influenced forever by the New Testament. I love the Beatitudes, informing us that the meek shall inherit the earth.
I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.
I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I'm a human being, too. And I'm on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.
I long for the time when all human history is taught as one history, because it really is.
What humility does for one is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been paid for. And what I need to do is prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who has yet to come but who may be here and needs me.
