I cannot shut you out the way I shut the others out, so maybe I can destroy you. Must destroy you?

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

There are many lesbians and gay men trapped by their fear into silence and invisibility, and they exist in a dim valley of terror wearing nooses of conformity.

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

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.

You will never be able to defend your city while shouting.

When we create out of our experiences, as feminists of color, women of color, we have to develop those structures that will present and circulate our culture.