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I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself - all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve.
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Glory falls around us as we sob a dirge of desolation on the Cross and hatred is the ballast of the rock
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If we don't plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don't have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don't have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.
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I got my own back.
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In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats - maybe it's imperative that we encounter the defeats - but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.
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If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.
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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.
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I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.
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I know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.
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My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
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It's so tedious writing cookbooks or writing the recipes because I've never been much of a measurer. But to write a book, you have to measure everything.
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I've conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I've sang and danced at La Scala!
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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.
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In all the world there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world there is no love for you like mine.
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Petulant priests, greedy centurions, and one million incensed gestures stand between your love and me.
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I did work in a strip club, but I didn't strip. I danced, and I became very popular.
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Don't get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that - if you dare. But get older because it's fun!
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Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.
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Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.
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I was very blessed to have family and friends, but particularly family, who told me I was not only all right, I was just right, so I believe that my brain is a good one, and it's lasting me very well.
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Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
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You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise.
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I created myself. I have taught myself so much.
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I write some country music. There's a song called 'I Hope You Dance.' Incredible. I was going to write that poem; somebody beat me to it.