The sight of a Black nun strikes their sentimentality; and, as I am unalterably rooted in native ground, they consider me a work of primitive art, housed in a magical color; the incarnation of civilized, anti-heathenism, and the fruit of a triumphing idea.

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it's wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.

God is different to us now, after all these years in Africa. More spirit than ever before, and more internal. Most people think he has to look like something or someone- a roofleaf or Christ- but we don't. And not being tied to what God looks like, frees us.

The infinite faith I have in people's ability to understand anything that makes sense has always been justified, finally, by their behavior.

Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.

it is this broken road with pitfalls and sharp turns and unexpected traverses that has brought me joy and adventure.

Writing poems is my way of celebrating with the world that I have not committed suicide the evening before.