Listen carefully to what country people call mother wit. In those homely sayings are couched the collective wisdom of generations.

I am a woman phenomenally, phenomenal woman that is your grandmother, that is your mother, that is your sister, that is you and that is me.

We need to haunt the house of history and listen anew to the ancestors' wisdom.

I'm grateful to intelligent people. That doesn't mean educated. That doesn't mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call 'mother wit' means intelligence that you had in your mother's womb. That's what you rely on. You know what's right to do.

She cherished her race. She cherished women. She cared for gay and straight people. She prayed nightly for Palestine and equally for Israel.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.