I've never thought of leaving the South, never.

i usedta live in the world really be in the world free & sweet talkin good mornin & thank-you & nice day uh huh i cant now i cant be nice to nobody nice is such a rip-off regular beauty & a smile in the street is just a set-up

Being alive and being a woman is all I got, but being colored is a metaphysical dilemma I haven't conquered yet.

Creation is everything you do. Make something.

The slaves who were ourselves had known terror intimately, confused sunrise with pain, & accepted indifference as kindness.

I write for young girls of color, for girls who don’t even exist yet, so that there is something there for them when they arrive. I can only change how they live, not how they think.

my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul & gender