I write the way women have babies. You don't know it's going to be like that. If you did, there's no way you would go through with it.

Make up a story... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.

Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.

you got two feet, Sethe, not four." he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; tactless and quiet.

It would be ten years before they saw each other again, and their meeting would be thick with birds.

You are your best thing

Unpersecuted, unjailed, unharrassed writers are trouble for the ignorant bully, the sly racist, and the predators feeding off the world's resources.