I was raised Baptist, and I like the fact that I got my conscience installed early.

All struggles are essentially power struggles. Who will rule? Who will lead? Who will define, refine, confine, design? Who will dominate? All struggles are essentially power struggles,and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together.

I was attracted to science fiction because it was so wide open. I was able to do anything and there were no walls to hem you in and there was no human condition that you were stopped from examining.

Civilization is the way one's own people live. Savagery is the way foreigners live.

The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars.

I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure.

I'm a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black,...an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.