The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self$$$ to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar$$$ is the test of their power.

I dont think many people appreciate silence or realize that it is as close to music as you can get.

When fear rules$$$ obedience is the only survival choice.

Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don't get nothing for it.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly$$$ violent people love violently$$$ weak people love weakly$$$ stupid people love stupidly$$$ but the love of a free man is never safe.

I know what every colored woman in this country is doing... Dying. Just like me. But the difference is they dying like a stump. Me$$$ I'm going down like one of those redwoods. I sure did live in this world.

I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion$$$ or insult$$$ as pitiable$$$ for the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that there was something deficient about such people.

Black literature is taught as sociology$$$ as tolerance$$$ not as a serious$$$ rigorous art form.

Writing is really a way of thinking--not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate$$$ unresolved$$$ mysterious$$$ problematic or just sweet.