Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity.

One must learn to care for oneself first, so that one can then dare to care for someone else.

I answer the heroic question, 'Death, where is thy sting?' with 'It is in my heart and mind and memories.

The world had taken a deep breath and was having doubts about continuing to revolve.

I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.

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

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