I was always a sensitive, sweet kid, but I got brutalized and I became brutal. And frankly, I don't think it was my natural makeup. I don't think its anyone's natural makeup to be a violent brawler.

I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that's the job of art.

One of the things I learned about writing a memoir is you can’t drag the reader through everything. Every human life is worth 20 memoirs.

I see a lot of marriages crash and burn around me and my wife. I've always been curious about how hard it is to love well and be loved.

Fear is a ghost; embrace your fear, and all you’ll see in your arms is yourself.

As a matter of writing philosophy, if there is one, I try not to ever plot a story. I try to write it from the character's point of view and see where it goes.

I've learned over the years that the writing is smarter and far larger than the writer and his or her own desires for it.

I have always known that writing fiction had little effect on the world; that if it did, young men would not have gone to war after The Iliad.

Somewhere, sometime I'd stopped expecting my father to father.

I read poetry every day. I love the boiled down essence of poetry. I look for poetry in prose. In a way that evocative.

What is art if not a concentrated and impassioned effort to make something with the little we have, the little we see?

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.

Ten years later, I will be able to say, "I saw future happen". And, this is the most rewarding part of what I do.

I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes.

Endure every hardship with hope.

Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor.

If someone says "You're not doing that right," hand him the shovel, sit and watch. That's the right way to garden.

You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I have no time for such nonsense.

A man has got to keep his extrication. The important thing is not to get bogged down In what he has to do to earn a living.

Enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil before the worst amongst you are given authority over you and then when even the best of you make dua against them, their duas will not be accepted.

I'm not really sick of people whipping their hair. It doesn't really get old. They're fans and I love them! It's just a fun game to play.