As African-Americans, we often spend our time and energy blaming other people for the problems we see around us.

...no woman can love a weak man hard enough to make him strong.

Discomfort is always a necessary part of enlightenment.

...freedom can be a full-time job if you let it.

you can't know the meaning of the lesson until class is over!

When you're young, there's a whole lot of stuff you say you'll never do. Once you get a little older, the list tends to get shorter.

Loneliness is black coffee and late-night television; solitude is herb tea and soft music.

Feminism is to sexism what black nationalism is to racism; the most rational response to the problem.

the problem with knowing is that it takes away the possibility of pretending!

old habits are hard to break, but not impossible!

Vera Stark is a fabulous force of nature.

I find it a challenge to respect capable people who care only for their own interests.

The table was covered with food like roast chicken, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roast turkey, roast liquorice and, the centrepiece, a roasted knight.

Winter, I wrote, was akin to living inside a refrigerator.

You may have gathered that I am not the most cheerful of revellers - some characterise me as the death and soullessness of any party but it wasn't always so, believe me.

I try to keep all my novels in print. Sometimes publishers don't agree with me as to their worth.

If you read only one memoir by a disaffected, urban, 20-something Jewish girl this year, make it this one. Shukert rocks the lulav.

Most Americans want health insurance.

All songs are about shagging, you can't deny it

Travelling to past lives is like making a hole in the floor and letting the flames of the fire in the apartment below scorch and burn the present

The older I get, the more people listen to me - even though I say the same as always.