I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed.

God is love, I said, but art's the possibility of forms, and shadows are the source of identity.

I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love.

The truth is the light and the light is the truth.

When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values.

I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest. Or when, even as just now I've tried to articulate exactly what I felt to be the truth. No one was satisfied