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.

The boys think they can all be athletes, and the girls think they can all be singers. That's the way to fame and success. ...as a group blacks must give up their illusions.

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

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

...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.

...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.

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