I would rather be uncomfortable with the truth than to be lied to in comfort. That's just my nature.

The first thing out of Fidel Castro's mouth to me, he looked me right in the eye and said, 'You're a man of great courage.'

Wrestling is ballet with violence.

Congratulations, you have a sense of humor. And to those who didn't: Go stick your head in the mud.

I tend to like to read history - recent history, because I find that much more intriguing than just a writer's imagination.

I am a happy person and I choose to be a positive person. I think some people think my life has been tragic and there have been these horrible dramas but things really have been, and are, fine.

I am actually really boring and I lead a quiet life. I love being at home, cooking for my boys, watching movies and I like nothing better than to go to bed early with a book.

What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells.

When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.

Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.

Today's youth are told to get rich or die trying and they really shouldn't take that attitude forward with them.

I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.

The type of leukemia that I am dealing with is treatable. So if I do what my doctors tell me to do - get my blood checked regularly, take my meds and consult with my doctor and follow any additional instructions he might make - I will be able to maintain my good health and live my life with a minimum of disruptions to my lifestyle.

A lot of young players don't really know much about the history of the game and a lot of them are missing out on what the game is all about, especially the whole concept of sportsmanship and teamwork.

I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.

This is what I would have done if I had to have a real job: I would have been a history teacher.

In athletics there's always been a willingness to cheat if it looks like you're not cheating. I think that's just a quirk of human nature.

Sports and entertainment are the only places where inner-city kids see themselves being able to succeed. Their intellectual development is something they don't relate to.

Engineers in the developed world should be arguing not for protectionism but for trade agreements that seek to establish rules that result in a real rise in living standards. This will ensure that outsourcing is a positive force in the developing nation's economy and not an exploitative one.

I was using computers for music in the '70s, '80s and '90s, and people didn't get it. They thought you should only use computers for your taxes and making pie charts.

When I first got famous in the '60s, I got a little too famous, and in order to escape showbusiness, I moved to Hawaii.

I've always had that attitude about my career: it's something that I do, but it's not my whole life. I have a real life, a personal life: I've got a lot of chickens, I've got a horse, I've got a kitty-cat, I've got a lot of goats, I've got animals all over the place.

When somebody says, 'Oh, Buffy, you're such a warrior for peace', I stop them and say, 'No, I'm not really a warrior for peace. What I promote is alternative conflict resolution'.

I love meeting people, and I know it's so difficult for people to come up to me and introduce themselves, so when they do, I'll grab them and hug them. It makes their day, you know? I love that, and I get positive energy from that.

Having plants and flowers in my space makes me feel very calm and Zen. For me, it's important to meditate every morning to be very clear in the head, and nature really helps me do the same thing.

'Yellow Moon' was a poem. My wife at the time, Joel - she's dead now - it was our 25th anniversary. She had the chance to go on a cruise with her sister. And I'm home with the kids and looking up, and I saw the big moon, and I just started writing.

I buried Joel on our 48th anniversary. I had been with her since I was 16.

I was raised Catholic, but my father's people were Methodist, so we went to both churches.

I'm here now because of my faith. That's what got me singing and what has kept me singing. That is what I have: what has kept me doing right and has provided me with the chances and the attitude and the skills to do this.

Every morning I wake up and thank God.

It's up to God to do the judging. You haven't walked in my boots, so how are you going to judge me?

When I'm singing, it's a mixture of my innocence in the projects, my mom and dad. It's all the good and the bad, the laughs and the frowns that I went through and seen other people go through. Then you be trying to write it. Whatever's coming out, you try and make it all cool.

In New Orleans, music is part of the culture. You're raised with it, from the cradle to the grave, and all in-between.

Doo-wop is the true music to me, man. Doo-wop was what nurtured me and grew me into who I am, and I guess even when I was in school, the teacher probably thought I had ADD or something every day, because I'd be beating on the desks, singing like the Flamingos or the Spaniels or Clyde McPhatter or somebody.

So now I have a collection of poetry by Aaron Neville and I give it to people I want to share it with. I'd like to publish it someday.

I write poetry on my iPhone. I've got about 100 poems on there.

Sometimes the beauty is easy. Sometimes you don't have to try at all. Sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake. Sometimes there's poetry written right on the bathroom wall.

I'd rather be able to face myself in the bathroom mirror than be rich and famous.

When I first started writing songs and being very explicit, it was hard, but one of the main things people respond to in my writing is that 'just say it' attitude of my songs. There really is nothing personal or private; it's all universal, if you can just find the courage to be open about your life.

Patriarchy is like the elephant in the room that we don't talk about, but how could it not affect the planet radically when it's the superstructure of human society.

You can't start with imbalance and end with peace, be that in your own body, in an ecosystem or between a government and its people. What we need to strive for is not perfection, but balance.

Patriarchy is a fundamental imbalance underlying society And it's one we rarely address because it's so universal. But as I get older, I see that peace is a product of balance.

Strangers are exciting, their mystery never ends. But, there's nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.

I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort where we overlap.

I think the gay community should get smart and drop the word 'marriage.' Do you really need to change every right-wing Christian to make sure you get your equal rights? Eyes on the prize, we should be sticking to getting equal rights.

A lot of women these days, a lot of young women don't want to call themselves feminists. You have this cheap, hideous 'girl power' sort of fad, which I think is pretty benign at best, but at worst, I think it's a way of taking the politics out of feminism and making it some kind of fashion.

I basically get stereotyped a lot in terms of being a girl and writing 'chick' music for teenage girls or something. I think, if anything, the press kind of, because of my gender and my age, tends to kind of relegate my work to this sort of special-interest group. It's part of the cultural dynamic, I guess.

I've been trying to learn how to not be so conflicted about things like my own anger. I've always had a place in my music for my anger as a way of compensating for not having a mechanism to express it in my everyday life. So I've been trying to be more true to myself, and that helps me to chill out a little bit. But politically, uh-uh. No.

Men make angry music and it's called rock-and-roll; women include anger in their vocabulary and suddenly they're angry and militant.

My father instilled in me the attitude of prevailing. If there's a challenge, go for it. If there's a wall to break down, break it down.