Unless carefree, mother love was a killer.

Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.

To get to a place where you could love anything you chose--not to need permission for desire--well now _that_ was freedom.

No one ever talks about the moment you found that you were white. Or the moment you found out you were black. That's a profound revelation. The minute you find that out, something happens. You have to renegotiate everything.

...the City is what they want it to be: thriftless, warm, scary and full of amiable strangers. No wonder they forget pebbly creeks and when they do not forget the sky completely think of it as a tiny piece of information about the time of day or night.

There is no civilization that did not begin with art, Whether it was drawing a line in the sand, painting a cave or dancing.

You have to be willing to think the unthinkable.