Art is not living. It is the use of living. The artist has the ability to take the living and use it in a certain way and produce art.

Oppression is as American as apple pie.

What I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid?

In discussions around the hiring and firing of Black faculty at universities, the charge is frequently heard that Black women are more easily hired than are Black men.

Black writers, of whatever quality, who step outside the pale of what black writers are supposed to write about, or who black writers are supposed to be, are condemned to silences in black literary circles that are as total and as destructive as any imposed by racism.

Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge. They are chaotic, sometimes painful, sometimes contradictory, but they come from deep within us. And we must key into those feelings... This is how new visions begin.

Your silence will not protect you.