"The World is what we think it is. If we can change our thoughts, we can change the world."

“That.s what Jazz music is all about.We started the Messengers because somebody had to mind the store for jazz.No America--no Jazz. It is the only culture that America has brought forth.”

“Don't be forecasting evil unless it is what you can guard against. Anxiety is good for nothing if we can't turn it into a defense.”

“Sometimes nothing is so solid to me as writing - I suppose that's what a vocation means - at times a torment, a bad conscience, but all in all, purpose and direction.”

Source : Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell (2008). “Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell”

“We live on the brink of disaster because we do not know how to let life alone. We do not respect the living and fruitful contradictions and paradoxes of which true life is full.”

“Black women are supposed to be 'strong,' but the burden of carrying our race and carrying our families adds the pressure.”

Source : "Aunjanue Ellis on 'Abducted: The Carlina White Story'". Interview with Melanie Yvette, www.ebony.com. October 2, 2012.

“Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that 'liberals' will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly.”

“Character is better than ancestry, and personal conduct is more important than the highest parentage.”

“Providing a real way to deal with the urgent needs of environmental issues that is accessible to everyone is the new fight for the democratization of design.”