“If you in the morning Throw minutes away, you can't pick them up in the course of a day. You may hurry and scurry, and flurry and worry, you've lost them forever, forever and aye.”

“If you in the morningThrow minutes away,You can't pick them upIn the course of a day.You may hurry and scurry,And flurry and worry,You've lost them forever,Forever and aye.”

“Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, "Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?”

“Never give up. The same manuscript may appeal to one agent and not to another. It's a matter of taste, and it's all about the writing.What if I had give up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60?The point is, I can't tell you how to succeed. But I can tell you how not to: Give in to the shame of being rejected and put your manuscript—or painting, song, voice, dance moves—in the coffin that is your bedside drawer and close it for good. I guarantee you that it won't take you anywhere.”

“Ugly live upon the inside. Ugly be a hurtful mean person...Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision...You gone have to ask yourself, Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?...With Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.”

“What you learn today?" I ask even though she ain't in real school, just the pretend kind. Other day, when I ask her, she say, "Pilgrims. They came over and nothing would grow so they ate the Indians."Now knew them Pilgrims didn't eat no Indians. But that ain't the point.”

“Great books give you a feeling that you miss all day, until you finally get to crawl back inside those pages again.”