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.

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.

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.

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

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

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