Black Americans should be given credit for finding probably the perfect weapon; the weapon of the song. And that song continues. Most holocausts don't, so they have this bitterness left over. The phenomenon of the world, as far as Black Americans are considered, is that we are not a bitter people.

Show me someone not full of herself and I'll show you a hungry person.

The poet can only write the poems; it takes the reader to complete the meaning.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.

We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.

Death is a slave's freedom.