To be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing.

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

Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

Lonely was much better than alone.

In becoming an American, from Europe, what one has in common with that other immigrant is contempt for me-it's nothing else but color.

Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.

Some literature is knowledge, some is just data. But if I can get a "happy" ending - which is when for the characters I'm writing about, something happens that they move from wherever they are in the beginning to knowledge or wisdom, they know something they never would have acknowledged or realized if it hadn't been for my book - that for me is what literature does.