As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words. I love the infinite evidence and change and requirements and possibilities of language.

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.

Really, I'm trying to care, Artemis, really. But I thought it was all supposed to be over when the fat lady sings. Well, she's singing, but it doesn't appear to be over

When you say you are losing it, it actually means you are losing faith in yourself.

We reveal most about ourselves when we speak about others.

It is a rare goal that has only one path.

Sometimes a gloomy street is all a sad person needs! A magical relief may arise from the meeting of the two sad things!

I love what I do, and I never thought about doing anything else. I think my voice was bestowed upon me; it was a gift I was given. I just had to learn to understand how to use it.

Be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds.