Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.

American means white, and Africanist people struggle to make the term applicable to themselves with ethnicity and hyphen after hyphen after hyphen.

There in the center of that silence was not eternity but the death of time and a loneliness so profound the word itself had no meaning.

Love just seems to make life not just livable, but a gallant, gallant event.

I tell my students one of the most important things they need to know is when they are at their best, creatively. They need to ask themselves, What does the ideal room look like? Is there music? Is there silence? Is there chaos outside or is there serenity outside? What do I need in order to release my imagination?

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

A friend gathers all the pieces and gives them back in the right order.