But, based on my friendship with Evie as young mothers, I started going on freedom rides in 1966.

Bisexuality means I am free and I am as likely to want to love a woman as I am likely to want to love a man, and what about that? Isn't that what freedom implies?

To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that's political, in its most profound way.

Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.

Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires.

We do not deride the fears of prospering white America. A nation of violence and private property has every reason to dread the violated and the deprived.

Maybe the purpose of being here, wherever we are, is to increase the durability and occasions of love among and between peoples.

Overall, white men run America. From nuclear armaments to the filth and jeopardy of New York City subways to the cruel mismanagement of health care, is there anything to boast about?

Body and soul, Black America reveals the extreme questions of contemporary life, questions of freedom and identity: How can I be who I am?

To tell the truth is to become beautiful.

If you are free, you are not predictable and you are not controllable.

Writers are in many ways like demi-gods. With one stroke of a pen they can give life to a character, or strike them from existence, with nary a twinge of grief at their passing.

The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.

Oh, Troy? He’s no one. He wanted something more from me than I could give.”“Friends with benefits?” Laurie asked, blushing as he said it.“More like frenemies with benefits.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

If you are playing the rigged game of investing, the house always wins.

War is hell.

You couldn't change the past. You could only go forward

My mom was an enthusiastic, positive, glass-is-half-full type of person and that is how I live my life and I owe that to her. She was an amazing woman.

I do see a lot of my kids, but sometimes I feel as though we have snatched moments. I turn up half way through something, or I only see her at bedtime. I'd like there to be more.

Consciously paying more for a stock than its calculated value - in the hope that it can soon be sold for a still-higher price - should be labelled speculation