"No matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don't see what we could be."

“Talent is equally distributed but opportunity is not.”

“Soon, I'm going to meet somebody around my own age, and she's going to be smart and beautiful, and I'm going to date her daughter.”

“Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.”

Source : "Words of Wisdom". Book edited by William Safire and Leonard Safir, p. 435, 1990.

“It is very difficult to know exactly what good should come out of a particular situation. To attempt to manipulate circumstances so your idea of good can come about, is to let the ego play God-and that, as you know, can and does backfire.”

“What's done can't be undone.”

“I'm for all kinds of gay rights. I'm almost like a gay man myself.”

Source : "EXCLUSIVE: NeNe Leakes on 'The New Normal,' Gay Rights and Her 'Glam-Baby'". Interview with Derrick Bryson Taylor, www.essence.com. September 11, 2012.

“I've got a penny-ante talent, out of which I try to drum up a living for myself. And what nobody seems to realize is that it's just as difficult to get a bad idea as a good one.”

“One should be allowed to choose one's burden.”

Source : Mary Butts (1998). “Ashe of Rings, and Other Writings”, McPherson & Company