Most things are born in the mothering darkness and most things die. Darkness is the womb of creation, my boy. But the sun with his seven horns of flame is the father of life.

Grown people know that they do not always know the way of things, and even if they think they know, they do not know where and how they got the proof.

If science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than the gestures of ceremony.

Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.

Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me.

The liquor of statecraft is distilled from the mash you got.

My sense of humor will always stand in the way of my seeing myself, my family, my race or my nation as the whole intent of the universe.