I always acted to be able to afford paints.

There are many times for three months in a row I wrote every day, but there are also many times for three months in a row I didn't write a word. What I found is I make an appointment with myself and I don't look at each day, I look at the calendar ahead.

Either you’re listening out for the kids or you’re writing. So I wrote when the kids went to bed. I wrote between nine and midnight those years. And my husband would listen out if the little guy was sick or something. It worked out.

This process has also involved slowing down and refusing a certain amount of labor that has been imposed upon me as a Black woman in this country.

it’s that grit, that determination, that fortitude, that gets you through what you set out to do.

In 50 years, I hope to be remembered not just as an industrialist but as someone who believed in the potential of people and worked to leave the world better than he found it.

I’m very proud of that and I started a drug and substance abuse program in middle schools in New York to help the worst performing schools.

Oh, all the time. We have a fear all the time. But that’s what keeps us going, that’s what keeps us focused. You have to have a fear. People who say, “I have no fear. I’m not afraid of ever failing,” are kidding themselves. Sometimes it’s the fear of failure, of not wanting to fail, that makes people as great as they are. I know that’s what pushes me, a lot.

We stress this commitment by saying, "Our job begins the day we buy a company." It's not about the transaction itself.

Our wedding day is tied with the births of my three children as the best days of my life.