My sons are very protective and loving towards me, but I don't know what's in their secret minds about me.

Africans believed that the woman's bare breast represented God, the circle of life and the moral cleanliness of human beings.

As for developing a writing style'I would say that I tried to copy the pacing of the old movies I loved as a kid.

As for feminism, I am a womanist more than I'm a feminist.

I love cooking for men and making love with them'not just reproductive lovemaking but I like sex for the sake of freaking out with men.

Race means family and all black people whether they like it or not, are family.

I loved 1930's women's pictures'films by Josef Von Sternberg or William Wyler. So, I fashioned a style out of that. The integrity and ethos of what I would write, however, came from the films of Ousmane Sembene and from reading Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Sylvia Plath and Alice Walker.