Womanists is what black feminists used to call themselves. Very much so. They were not the same thing. And also the relationship with men. Historically, black women have always sheltered their men because they were out there, and they were the ones that were most likely to be killed.

If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up.

you got two feet, Sethe, not four." he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; tactless and quiet.

When am I happy and when am I sad and what is the difference? What do I need to know to stay alive? What is true in the world?

If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic....Authors arrive at text and subtext in thousands of ways, learning each time they begin anew how to recognize a valuable idea and how to reader the texture that accompanies, reveals or displays it to its best advantage.

Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another - physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion.

We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.