All paradises, all utopias are designed by who is not there, by the people who are not allowed in.

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

They had stared at her with great uncomprehending eyes. Eyes that questioned nothing and asked everything. Unblinking and unabashed, they stared up at her. The end of the world lay in their eyes, and the beginning, and all the waste in bewteen.

Black women are the touchstone by which all that is human can be measured.

Like friendship, hatred needed more than physical intimacy; it wanted creativity and hard work to sustain itself

What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.

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