The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the 'Negro's' reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.
Sonia SanchezI probably have not killed anyone in America because I write, I've maintained good controls over myself by writing.
Sonia Sanchez... in order to be a true revolutionary, you must understand love. Love, sacrifice, and death.
Sonia SanchezI still hear you humming, Mama. The colour of your song calls me home. The colour of your words saying, Let her be. She got a right to be different. She gonna stumble on herself one of these days. Just let the child be. And I be, Mama.
Sonia SanchezWhat I'm trying to do is to tell young people that I teach them how to breathe before I teach the haiku. That one breath, that one breath, because the haiku keeps you alive. It keeps you going. If you learn how to breath the haiku, you learn how to breathe. If you learn how to breathe, you're much healthier.
Sonia SanchezPoetry is subconscious conversation, it is as much the work of those who understand it and those who make it.
Sonia SanchezSo much of growing up is an unbearable waiting. A constant longing for another time. Another season.
Sonia SanchezAll poets, all writers are political. They either maintain the status quo, or they say, 'Something's wrong, let's change it for the better.'
Sonia SanchezThe joy of poetry is that it will wait for you. Novels don't wait for you. Characters change. But poetry will wait. I think it's the greatest art.
Sonia SanchezI cannot tell the truth about anything unless I confess being a student, growing and learning something new every day. The more I learn, the clearer my view of the world becomes.
Sonia SanchezThe most fundamental truth to be told in any art form, as far as Blacks are concerned, is that America is killing us.
Sonia SanchezAnd I criedโฆ for all of the women who stretched their bodies for civilizations, only to find ruins.
Sonia SanchezNo. Don't never go looking for love girl. Just wait. It'll come. Like the rain fallin' from the heaven, it'll come. Just don't never give up on love.
Sonia SanchezWhat is the beauty of the haiku is that it is not simplistic. The beauty of the haiku I just said is very complex. It reaches all the complexities of our life on this Earth. Peace - that's a very complex idea, peace, so we can't get it as human beings.
Sonia SanchezZora Neale Hurston said fear is the greatest emotion and I said, 'No my dear sister.' Fear will make us move to save our own skins. Love also makes us save ourselves, but it will make us move to save others as well.
Sonia Sanchez