Oh, Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly.

How sad now never to see men holding hands, while everywhere one looks they are holding guns.

One white man on the platform in South Carolina asked us where we were going--we had got off the train to get some fresh air and to dust the grit and dust out of our clothes. When we said Africa he looked offended and tickled too. Niggers going to Africa, he said to his wife. Now I have seen everything.

Activism pays the rent on being alive and being here on the planet.

Drew Dellinger is a deep and courageous poet. How lucky we are!

To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love and die. The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of the pain, the sorrow, is always a measure of what has gone before.

I'm mad about the waste that happens when people who love each other can't even bring themselves to talk.