I had been a girl of whom certain things were expected, none of them too bad: a career as a nurse, for example; a sense of duty to my parents; obedience to the law and worship of convention. But in one year of being away from home, that girl had gone out of existence.

A piece of cloth that is called "linen" has more validity than calling you and me "black" or "negro." "Cotton" has more validity as cotton than yours and my being "black."

the first step in claiming yourself is anger. You get mad. And you can't do anything before you get angry. And I recommend getting very angry to everyone, anyone.

I like cooking, but I think someone else ought to do the dishes.

I like melancholy. I like to pretend that I'm alone in the world and I'm just sort of abandoned.

The slave trade was globalism. Why people insist that globalism, after its hideous history, is a good thing, I do not know.

Life has a truth to it, and it's complicated - it's love and it's hatred.