I write not only what I want to read...I write all the things I should have been able to read.

Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.

I'm the kind of woman that likes to enjoy herselves in peace.

It's better to have your blackness taken away than to stand there and lie about who you actually are. That's the trap.

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.

Love is big; love can hold anger, love can even hold hatred. It's about the intention of what you want it to do.

I am not interested in being a role model, or in fulfilling the expectations of others. I know I am of most use to others and to myself by being this unique self: Nature, I have noticed, is not particularly devoted to copies, and human beings needn't be either.