When I was a child I wanted to be a vet. I'd come home with ""lost"" kittens and dogs. My mother would tell me to put them back.

Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian.

I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.

Being a stepmother has worked out very well for me. I love my stepchildren very much.

You discover that the education the Negro gets is designed to keep him subservient. The poor black man is exploited by whites and by educated Negroes, too.

It's really difficult for me. Language, I am sorry that I haven't. I think I just always expected that you learn a word in place of a word and when I discovered how difficult the grammar was and learning that was very discouraging for me.

I had a teacher who stressed for me the importance of diction in terms of... I want to be very careful about how I say this... in terms of supporting one's voice when one is singing. In other words, if you hold on to your words, your voice will pull through for you when you're singing. So be true to your vowels.

Human education is concerned with certain changes in the intellects, characters and behavior of men, its problems being roughly included under these four topics: Aims, materials, means and methods.