I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance.

You must have courage to love, you have to have a profound will to do what is right to love, and it does not come easy.

The most basic activism we can have in our lives is to live consciously in a nation living in fantasies. Living consciously is living with a core of healthy self-esteem. You will face reality, you will not delude yourself.

... we need to interrogate "reverence," for idolization can be another way one is objectified and not really taken seriously.

It is crucial for the future of the Black liberation struggle that we remain ever mindful that ours is a shared struggle, that we are each other's fate.

Sadly, children's passion for thinking often ends when they encounter a world that seeks to educate them for conformity and obedience only.

The intellectual tradition of the West is very individualistic. It's not community-based. The intellectual is often thought of as a person who is alone and cut off from the world. So I have had to practice being willing to leave the space of my study to be in community, to work in community, and to be changed by community.