He wants to put his story next to hers.

Two parents can't raise a child any more than one. You need a whole community - everybody - to raise a child. And the little nuclear family is a paradigm that just doesn't work. It doesn't work for white people or for black people. Why are we hanging onto it, I don't know. It isolates people into little units - people need a larger unit.

My world did not shrink because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger.

I don't work. I keep telling people I'm unemployed. And I don't wash dishes, and I don't wash clothes, and I don't clean my house. Somebody else does that.

There is an incredible amount of magic and feistiness in black men that nobody has been able to wipe out. But everybody has tried.

There is really nothing more to say - except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.

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.