I really think the range of emotions and perceptions I have had access to as a black person and as a female person are greater than those of people who are neither.... So it seems to me that my world did not shrink because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger.

When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do.

A man ain't nothing but a man. But a son? Well, now, that's somebody.

Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don't get nothing for it.

Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something?

Intimacy is extremely important to me and I want it to be extremely important to the readers.

Shallow believers prefer a shallow God.