We are all more blind to what we have than to what we have not.

Revolution is not a one time event.

Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.

I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.

We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired.

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.

If this society ascribes roles to Black men which they are not allowed to fulfill, is it Black women who must bend and alter our lives to compensate, or is it society that needs changing?

What gets me about the United States is that it pretends to be honest and therefore has so little room to move toward hope.

Too often, we pour the energy needed for recognizing and exploring difference into pretending those differences are insurmountable barriers, or that they do not exist at all.

No woman is responsible for altering the psyche of her oppressor, even when that psyche is embodied in another woman.

Oppressed peoples are always being asked to stretch a little more, to bridge the gap between blindness and humanity.

When you change, people may not believe in it initially as they are still viewing you from their old lens.

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene and as if by magic we see a new meaning in it.

I think it would be funny for people to read in obituaries of me that my major contribution to the arts was the popularization of the phrases 'neutral facial expression' and 'screaming in agony.'

No water, no life. No blue, no green.

You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only.

All that [replacing of fat] does is lead to dissatisfaction and I think that dissatisfaction results in overeating.

The only gratification that science denies to us is deception.

During those formative times, I really didn't know what was going on, and I was sort of torn in a thousand different directions with how I felt about what I was doing.

There is no release In a bodkin or disease, Nor can there be a work so great As that which cleans man's dirty slate.

So full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical.