Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.

I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind.

I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition.

Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle lies the joy.

We agreed that great men and women should be forced to live as long as possible. The reverence they enjoyed was a life sentence, which they could neither revoke nor modify.