I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.

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

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

My home is such a powerfully imaginative place that the space is almost irrelevant. I think the house I live at on the Hudson is where I belong because it's the only place where I am that I never think about when I'm leaving.

...fact was she knew more about them than she knew about herself, having never had the map to discover what she was like. Could she sing? (Was it nice to hear when she did?) Was she pretty? Was she a good friend? Could she have been a loving mother? A faithful wife? Have I got a sister and does she favor me? If my mother knew me would she like me? (140)

I have a lot of respect for readers because I'm a reader. That's how I got into writing.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.