Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it.

Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don't feel safe.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

She is convinced that when language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference and absence of esteem, or killed by fiat, not only she herself, but all users and makers are accountable for its demise. In her country children have bitten their tongues off and use bullets instead to iterate the voice of speechlessness, of disabled and disabling language, of language adults have abandoned altogether as a device for grappling with meaning, providing guidance, or expressing love.

Anything I have ever learned of any consequence, I have learned from Black people. I have never been bored by any Black person, ever.

When you first start writing-and I think it's true for a lot of beginning writers-you're scared to death that if you don't get that sentence right that minute it's never going to show up again. And it isn't. But it doesn't matter-another one will, and it'll probably be better. And I don't mind writing badly for a couple of days because I know I can fix it-and fix it again and again and again, and it will be better.

Books ARE a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.