What did it mean for a black woman to be an artist in our grandmothers' time? In our great-grandmothers' day? It is an answer cruel enough to stop the blood.

I grew up in the South [USA states] under segregation. I know what terrorism feels like - when your father could be taken out in the middle of the night and lynched just because he didn't look like he was in an obeying frame of mind when a white person said something he must do. That's terrorism, too.

I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here.

I've found, in my own writing, that a little hatred, keenly directed, is a useful thing.

Be nobody's darling; Be an outcast. Take the contradictions Of your life And wrap around You like a shawl, To parry stones To keep you warm.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that's something that we should think about.

Surely the earth can be saved by all the people who insist on love.