My first-born. All I can remember of her is how she loved the burned bottom of bread. Can you beat that? Eight children and that's all I remember.

If you can only be tall because someone else is on their knees, then you have a serious problem. And white people have a very, very serious problem.

I can't explain inspiration. A writer is either compelled to write or not. And if I waited for inspiration I wouldn't really be a writer.

No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way that simple joy could shake you.

I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes.

Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don't feel safe.

I'm interested in the way in which the past affects the present and I think that if we understand a good deal more about history, we automatically understand a great more about contemporary life.