Shakespeare must be a black girl.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

Time itself is an individual gift. It is wise to cherish it carefully and give it away generously.

You never get over the fear of writing.

My entire stay there [high school] might have been time lost if it hadn't been for the unique personality of a brilliant teacher. Miss Kirwin was that rare educator who was in love with information. I will always believe that her love of teaching came not so much from her liking for students but from her desire to make sure that some of the things she knew would find repositories so that they could be shared again.

The devil lives in our mistakes, the lord lives in our rights. Who lives in our ignorance, and who wins after all?

I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they're telling the truth. The fact is they're using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they're telling the truth about the human being- what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.