It was important, I know, for my father as a product of his times not to be vulnerable, so he chose, and I can't say that I blame him, to live his life rather than create it.

Novelists have to love humanity to write anything worthwhile. Poets have to love themselves.

I am a stranger to half measures.

We black women must forgive black men for not protecting us against slavery, racism, white men, our confusion, their doubts. And black men must forgive black women for our own sometimes dubious choices, divided loyalties, and lack of belief in their possibilities. Only when our sons and our daughters know that forgiveness is real, existent, and that those who love them practice it, can they form bonds as men and women that really can save and change our community.

To my father, who told me the stories that matter. To my mother, who taught me to remember them.

Love is going to replace life and from then on it's all smooth sailing. Love will replace life.

I quickly learned that motherhood was a high wire act sometimes performed without a net.