Writing is my shelter. I don't hide behind the words; I use them to dig inside my heart to find the truth.

I don't trust white critics' judgment about most things that deal with black life, particularly when a black person is the creator.

It's sad to think that we've gotten to this, that we actually have to think about how to go about finding a man. But what's even sadder is that some men make you feel guilty for looking.

I want to push the fast-forward button until I get back to happy.

My stories are character driven.

I like to think of what happens to characters in good novels and stories as knots--things keep knotting up. And by the end of the story--readers see an unknotting of sorts. Not what you expect, not the easy answers you get on TV, not wash and wear philosophies, but a reproduction of believable, emotional experiences.

At least be a nice lesbian or you're going to give the rest a bad rap.