our dreams draw blood from old sores.

i found god in myself and i loved her i loved her fiercely

I write for young girls of color, for girls who don’t even exist yet, so that there is something there for them when they arrive. I can only change how they live, not how they think.

I'm a firm believer that language and how we use language determines how we act, and how we act then determines our lives and other people's lives.

Where there is a woman there is magic.

Creation is everything you do. Make something.

my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul & gender

Right now being born a girl is to be born threatened.

Being alive and being a woman is all I got, but being colored is a metaphysical dilemma I haven't conquered yet.

I am gonna write poems til i die and when i have gotten outta this body i am gonna hang round in the wind and knock over everybody who got their feet on the ground.

When I die, I will no be guilty of having left a generation of girls behind thinking that anyone can tend to their emotional health other than themselves.

Death is a shadow that always follows the body

I'm bored, " she said."Learn how to tap-dance, " he suggested, without turning around.

The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.

And then a great thing in my life was going to India.

A lot of cultures believe you take the placenta and you bury it and plant something.

All my momma's people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.

Even an Englishman was niver improved by bein' blown up.

Having a book is actually like a great master - helping to build a universe and unify work - especially in my pictures where there is such a strong signature, yet with a set of rigorous rules to it.

We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.

I've always played every amp I've ever had full up, because rock and roll is supposed to be played loud. Also, that's how you get your sustain.