I marvel at the many ways we, as black people, bend but do not break.

The most amazing thing about little children ... was their fantastic adaptability.

It is true that no one can harm the person who wears armor. But no one can help him either.

...I have wanted to believe people could make their dreams come truethat problems could be solved. However, this is a national illness. As Americans, we believe all problems can be solved, that all questions have answers.

I don't see black people as victims even though we are exploited. Victims are flat, one- dimensional characters, someone rolled over by a steamroller so you have a cardboard person. We are far more resilient and more rounded than that. I will go on showing there's more to us than our being victimized. Victims are dead.

...one of my motivating forces has been to recreate the world I know into a world I wish I could be in. Hence my optimism and happy endings.

When you get up in the morning, you merely put on your clothes. When a colored man gets up in the morning, he puts on his armor.