But I have long loved the written word, and come to see in it the power of the sleeping lion. This is my name. This is who I am. This is how I got here. In the absence of an audience, I will write down my story so that it waits like a restful beast with lungs breathing and heart beating.

To gaze into another persons face is to do two things: to recognise their humanity and to assert your own.

I had learned that there were times when fighting was impossible, when the best thing to do was to wait and to learn.

Some say that I was once uncommonly beautiful, but I wouldn't wish beauty on any woman who has not her own freedom, and who chooses not the hands that claim her.

When it comes to understanding others, we rarely tax our imaginations.

Sometimes a deal with the devil is better than no deal at all.

We are never really beyond it... slavery continues to this day.