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.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one's children will become than for the children one's 'mature' critics often are.

I feel I am a child that's lost its mother. I feel like a calf whose mother has gone off to slaughter.

As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can.

Helped are those who forgive; their reward shall be forgetfulness of every evil done to them. It will be in their power, therefore, to envision the new Earth. -----“The Gospel According to Shug

You can't truly have an open heart until it's been broken.

I have a lot of faith in us. I have a lot of faith in humanity. It's based, though, on my own life; I've come too far to be a pessimist.