There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

Being able to laugh got me through.

If happiness is anticipation with certainty, we were happy.

Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing.

You marvel at the economy and this choice of words. How many ways can you describe the sky and the moon? After Sylvia Plath, what can you say?

It was a fine cry - loud and long - but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.

Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.