It is never easy to demand the most from ourselves, from our lives, from our work. To encourage excellence is to go beyond the encouraged mediocrity of our society is to encourage excellence. But giving in to the fear of feeling and working to capacity is a luxury only the unintentional can afford, and the unintentional are those who do not wish to guide their own destinies.

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.

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

We cannot settle for the pretenses of connection, or for the parodies of self-love.

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.

The oppression of women knows no ethnic nor racial boundaries, true, but that does not mean it is identical within those boundaries.

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.