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.

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.

When we define ourselves, when I define myself, the place in which I am like you and the place in which I am not like you, I'm not excluding you from the joining - I'm broadening the joining.

You are the one that you are looking for.

It is not the destiny of Black America to repeat white America's mistakes. But we will, if we mistake the trappings of success in a sick society for the signs of a meaningful life.

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

The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black goddess within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.