"My fondest hope is that 'Roots' may start black, white, brown, red, yellow people digging back for their own roots. Man, that would make me feel 90 feet tall."

"Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help."

"When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth."

"In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it."

"Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young."

"I don't really consider myself a model, to be honest. I respect designers; I think it's another art, you know."

"It is the nature of truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest when most superficial."

"True knowledge is found not in possessing answers, but in continually asking the right questions. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery — an essential principle for the reflective life."