I learned to read from Mrs. Augusta Baker, the children's librarian. ... If that was the only good deed that lady ever did in her life, may she rest in peace. Because that deed saved my life, if not sooner, then later, when sometimes the only thing I had to hold on to was knowing I could read.

Our visions begin with our desires.

If you don’t define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive

Silence has never brought us anything of worth.

Anger, used, does not destroy. Hatred does.

Those of us forged in the crucibles of difference know that survival is not an academic skill.

You know how fighting fish do it? They blow bubbles and in each one of those bubbles is an egg and they float the egg up to the surface. They keep this whole heavy nest of eggs floating, and they're constantly repairing it. It's as if they live in both elements.