Somebody has to take responsibility for being a leader.

Can't nothing heal without pain, you know.

Well, feel this, why don't you? Feel how it feels to have a bed to sleep in and somebody there not worrying you to death about what you got to do each day to deserve it. Feel how that feels. And if that don't get it, feel how it feels to be a colored woman roaming the roads with anything God made liable to jump on you. Feel that.

My theory is that the world is a difficult place to live in and distraction is the name of the game.

The Administration of the United States is such dread I almost feel paralyzed.

I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can't do anything anyway.

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