This could be our revolution: to love what is plentiful as much as what's scarce.

I love my own culture. I love my African-American culture very deeply, and I know it deserves to be honored. You have to be aware that people are suffering unjustly, and given our own history we have a duty to stand for the people who are being treated like our parents and grandparents and children were treated.

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.

But if by some miracle and all our struggle, the earth is spared, only justice to every living being will save humankind.

It's essential that we understand that taking care of the planet will be done as we take care of ourselves. You know that you can't really make much of a difference in things until you change yourself.

No song or poem will bear my mother's name. Yet so many of the stories that I write, that we all write, are my mother's stories.