The South African government, unlike a lot of African governments, isn’t poor.

You have to assess every situation that you’re in and you have to decide, is this happening because I’m black? Is this happening because I’m a woman? Or is this happening because this is how it happens?

If people are informed they will do the right thing. It’s when they are not informed that they become hostages to prejudice.

You have to assess every situation that you're in and you have to decide, is this happening because I'm black? Is this happening because I'm a woman? Or is this happening because this is how it happens?

The private schools and the independent schools like Oprah's are really doing well because they've got the best of everything but it certainly puts the spotlight on a system of public education that is still reeling from the apartheid years [in South Africa].

The South African government, unlike a lot of African governments, isn't poor.

I get much more information about the rest of the world from people who are not Americans. You get a distance from America that is useful for a journalist; useful for my perspective on the world.

I think that the thing that we learned back in the day of the Civil Rights Movement is that you do have to keep on keeping on.

If people are informed they will do the right thing. It's when they are not informed that they become hostages to prejudice.

I was so taken aback by the question that I had to think about my response for a minute. Had I heard what I thought I heard? ... Remembering Zora Neale Hurston's Janie, I felt something inside me fall off the shelf, and I had to go inside and look around to see what it was.