A man is not a tree'...If we remain where we start from we will neither grow nor flourish.

Bisexuality means I am free and I am as likely to want to love a woman as I am likely to want to love a man, and what about that? Isn't that what freedom implies?

To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that's political, in its most profound way.

Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.

Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires.

We do not deride the fears of prospering white America. A nation of violence and private property has every reason to dread the violated and the deprived.

Maybe the purpose of being here, wherever we are, is to increase the durability and occasions of love among and between peoples.

Overall, white men run America. From nuclear armaments to the filth and jeopardy of New York City subways to the cruel mismanagement of health care, is there anything to boast about?

Body and soul, Black America reveals the extreme questions of contemporary life, questions of freedom and identity: How can I be who I am?

To tell the truth is to become beautiful.

If you are free, you are not predictable and you are not controllable.

Some art are meant to cut shortstretching them unnecessary makes it dull.

Let the mystery carry you breathlessly along.

To tell a story is always to translate the raw material into a specific shape, to select out of the boundless potential facts those that seem salient.

Psychology is action not thinking about oneself.

I used to live in Ethiopia as a child, and I lived there when Haile Selassie was the emperor.

The audience bursts into laughter. With the tragic gag I don't expect the audience to laugh (if they do, I have failed) but I expect a black silence from them that is almost as violent: as laughter.

I don't get caught in the match-ups, trying to outduel somebody. It's a team game.

Time to go inward, man, I hope I have the nerve, to take inventory of the causes that I serve.

I try not to get too high off the highs or too low off the lows.

The more varied the characters, the better, as far as I'm concerned.