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

I have never felt a placard and a poem are in any way similar.

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

I marvel at the many ways we, as black people, bend but do not break in order to survive. This astonishes me, and what excites me I write about. Everyone of us is a wonder. Everyone of us has a story.

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.

Writing is harder than anything else; at least starting to write is.

it is amazing how all our paths of rebellion tend to lead us straight back home.