We do not deride the fears of prospering white America. A nation of violence and private property has every reason to dread the violated and the deprived.

Like running trying to live a good life has to hurt a little bit, or we're not running hard enough, not really trying.

Language is political. That's why you and me, my Brother and Sister, that's why we supposed to choke our natural self into the weird, lying, barbarous, unreal, white speech and writing habits that the schools lay down like holy law.

The music of language became extremely important to me, and obvious to me. By the time I was seven I was writing myself. I was a poet

We survive our love because we go on loving.

We need everybody and all that we are. We need to know and make known the complete, constantly unfolding, complicated heritage that is our black experience. We should absolutely resist the superstar, one at a time mentality that threatens the varied and resilient, flexible wealth of our Black future.

As I think about anyone or anything -- whether history or literature or my father or political organizations or a poem or a film -- as I seek to evaluate the potentiality, the life-supportive commitment and possibilities of anyone or any thing, the decisive question is always where is the love?