You cannot use someone else's fire. You can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe that you have it.

I believe one of the hardest things you can do is conquer your fears, but if you have a goal, then it's your job to open up and let it be real no matter how scary it seems.

There are no honest poems about dead women.

I can't really define it in sexual terms alone although our sexuality is so energizing why not enjoy it too?

If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest.

For within livin structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, our feelings were not meant to survive. Kept around as unavoidable adjuncts or pleasant pastimes, our feelings were expected to kneel to thought as women were expected to kneel to men. But women have survived. As poets.

Within the lesbian community I am Black, and within the Black community I am a lesbian. Any attack against Black people is a lesbian and gay issue, because I and thousands of other Black women are part of the lesbian community. Any attack against lesbians and gays is a Black issue, because thousands of lesbians and gay men are Black. There is no hierarchy of oppression.