If you're silent for a long time, people just arrive in your mind.

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.

It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

I'm for women choosing whatever they want to do but they have to really know what they are doing.

Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.

When people become elders - when they're older; they can be old without being an elder, really. They [can] just be old and not very useful.