You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts.

Schools should serve breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. No sugared drinks, no fast type food.

We black women are the single group in the West intact. And anybody can see we're pretty shaky. We are, however (all praises), the only group that derives its identity from itself.

We all have our muses. My grandmother and my mother are the people I write for. I'll never have to worry about who buys my work, or who likes it, and who doesn't. The people who I want to be proud of me already are.

Language instruction should start in the first grade. Writing, also.

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

The only advice [for new writers and poets] I can offer is to be yourself: not the self someone else wants you to be, but the self you are. Enjoy yourself and your life. But most of all travel and eat. That's how we learn.