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The Great Migration can get forgotten if we don't pay attention or bear witness to it. It's part of my personal history and the history of millions of African Americans who left those oppressive conditions for better lives in the North. It's important to put that on the page.

I had some things I had to fix. It took me 14 years to do it. But it was never really fun back in the day to work with directors who were a lot older and were like authoritarian and talking to you like that.

There is such a thing as my kind of actor, and how well they pull off my dialogue is a very, very important part of it.

My strength as a singer is my versatility. I find it really frustrating when I'm only expected to show off. The music industry is awash with female acrobats. What happens to the song, and treating it for its sake and not as an ego example?

A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool.

I sometimes overeat or drink too much, but I don't eat chocolate, and I gave up smoking when I was 39.

We cannot truly understand a person’s pain or their suffering from an illness if we ourselves have not experienced it. We cannot know how they feel or what they are going through so we cannot base our happiness on the fact that we are healthy and someone else is sick, because we are not in a position to understand the specific burdens of the two opposite states of being. We can only recognize the difference between them and become aware that one state is more desirable than the other, but then we remain at the level of an ill-informed person groping in the dark without knowing how to turn on the light.

The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle.

The process of falling in love at first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the growth of true friendship may be a lifelong affair.

I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don't want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.

Before the Civil War, there were no national cemeteries, no processes for identifying the dead in the battle. There weren't any dog tags, and there was no next-of-kin notification. You didn't necessarily even hear what the fate of your loved ones had been. It was up to their comrades to write and inform you.

Ingrid Bergman made an enormous impression on me. I couldn't imagine where that kind of acting talent came from.

I. Those of us born by water are never afraid enough of drowning. Bruises used to trophy my knees from my death-defying tree climb jumps. Growing up, my backyard was a forest of blackberry bushes. I learned early nothing sweet will come to you unthorned. II. At twelve your body becomes a currency. So Jenny and I sat down and cut up all our clothes into nothing. That year I failed math class but knew the exact number of calories in a carrot stick. I learned early being desired goes hand in hand with hunger. III. The last time I tried to scream I felt my father climbing up through my throat and into my mouth. IV. There is a certain kind of girl who reads Lolita at fourteen and finds religion. I painted my eyes black and sucked barroom cherries to red my tongue. There was a boy who promised Judas really did love Jesus. I learned early every kiss and betrayal are up for interpretation. V. I think he must have conferenced with my nightmares on exactly how to hurt me. VI. He never broke my heart. He only turned it into a compass that always points me back to him.

Attending a book group is always a salutary experience for a writer. There's no guarantee that the people there will have enjoyed your book, and, as anyone who has taken part in a book group will know, half the fun is in ripping a book you haven't liked to shreds.

It's a lot of work to make a marriage work. Just because you have been married for a while doesn't mean you can sit back and relax. You still have to be on your toes. A marriage needs constant attention.

So many of today's programs are about trophies and jackets, and we think that's a big mistake.

If you stay in the house long enough, the world becomes a stranger.

Unless you're trying to make a movie on the sly, there's no way to get around this. If you want to use public spaces, film on the streets, have the cooperation of the police, you have to have a permit.

When I came into stand-up, I found a certain safe space of intellectualism, of camaraderie, of excellence that really has always been natural to me but always felt foreign in the other spaces I've been in.

I love Aretha Franklin, Edith Piaf, Blondie.