My activism really is for myself, because I see places in the world where I feel I should be. If there is something really bad, really evil, happening somewhere, then that is where I should be. I need, for myself, to feel that I have stood there. It feels a lot better than just watching it on television.

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

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.

The good news may be that Nature is phasing out the white man, but the bad news is that's who She thinks we all are.

The more I wonder, the more I love.

Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence - as it saves most writers who live in 'interesting' oppressive times and are not afflicted by personal immunity.

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