I don't trust white critics' judgment about most things that deal with black life, particularly when a black person is the creator.

I'm the only one who can stop me.. I'm the one who's been sitting at the stoplight all these years, waiting for the light to turn green.

Writing is my shelter. I don't hide behind the words; I use them to dig inside my heart to find the truth.

If you jump to conclusions, you make terrible landings.

Pay attention to the things that agitate you. It will tell you a lot about yourself.

It's amazing how we can make ourselves believe what we want to.

People like to run their mouths.

Writing is the only place I can be myself and not feel judged.

Few writers are willing to admit writing is autobiographical.

As a writer, you get to bring attention to something without preaching. I don't believe in being didactic. So if you dramatize something, you automatically bring attention to it if people read it.

I'm more interested in interpersonal relationships - between lovers families, siblings. That's why I write about how we treat each other.

Christians, pray for an outpouring of God’s Spirit upon a willful, evil, unrepentant world.

I have no desire whatever to reform myself. My only desire is to reform people who try to reform me. And I believe that the only way to reform people is to kill 'em.

All art is dependent on technology because it's a human endeavour, so even when you're using charcoal on a wall or designed the proscenium arch, that's technology.

When you meet someone for the first time, that's not the whole book. That's just the first page.

There's no one thing that's true. It's all true.

It doesn't take any longer to improvise 10 takes than it takes to shoot 10 takes of the same thing. It turns out to be just as responsible from a business point of view as anything else.

You have a different audience. Your personal energy is different because some days you're energized, some nights you might be tired so that affects your memory and your emotion.

... for home is a magnet that lures back even its most abstracted children.

Singularity is only pardonable in old age and retirement; I may now be as singular as I please, but you may not.

Never prod at a woman unless you must. She will kill you faster than a man and for less reason, even if she weeps over it after.