The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know.

I don't think one parent can raise a child. I don't think two parents can raise a child. You really need the whole village.

Whatever happens, whether you get rich or stay poor, ruin your health or live to old age, you always end up back where you started: hungry for the one thing everybody loses - young loving.

I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes.

Her mind traveled crooked streets and aimless goat paths, arriving sometimes at profundity, other times at the revelations of a three-year-old. Throughout this fresh, if common, pursuit of knowledge, one conviction crowned her efforts: ...she knew there was nothing to fear.

It's bliss when you give up all that stuff that separates you from other human beings. It's hard, but you break down all that stuff.

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