Had I known that the heart breaks slowly, dismantling itself into unrecognizable plots of misery... had I known yet I would have loved you, your brash and insolent beauty, your heavy comedic face and knowledge of sweet delights, but from a distance I would have left you whole and wholly for the delectation of those who wanted more and cared less.

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.

Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

If I wanted to write, I had to be willing to develop a kind of concentration found mostly in people awaiting execution. I had to learn technique and surrender my ignorance.

Grace is like a lake of drinkable water right outside your door. But you stay inside and die of thirst.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

Money and power can liberate only if they are used to do so. They can imprison and inhibit more finally than barred windows and iron chains.