The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder-in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.

If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough.

Each of us has the power and responsibility to become a rainbow in the clouds.

Ritie, don't worry 'cause you ain't pretty. Plenty pretty women I seen digging ditches or worse. You smart. I swear to God, I rather you have a good mind than a cute behind.

I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.

I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly treated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them.