If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more.

If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.

There's a difference between writing for a living and writing for life. If you write for a living, you make enormous compromises.... If you write for life, you'll work hard; you'll do what's honest, not what pays

When a man angers you, he conquers you.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

You need a whole community to raise a child. I have raised two children, alone.

I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we're demons.