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.

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.

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

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