Raising Black children-female and male-in the mouth of a racist, sexist, suicidal dragon is perilous and chancy. If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they will probably not survive.

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.

Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.

Tomorrow belongs to those of us who conceive of it as belonging to everyone; who lend the best of ourselves to it, and with joy.

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.

If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest.

There's a moment in fighting when strength of muscle ain't everything because enemy has already given you enough energy to gain the victory.

This is how it works now with the news: the story begins with a moral, then a narrative is fashioned to support it.

I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.

I'm going to a dance." With Becky?" No, with Alexander." Who's Alexander?" The love of my life!

I don't think of myself as a dissident, and I'm more of an immigrant than an exile.

My first girlfriend, when I was about 18, was a fashion designer, and my sister was a fashion designer as well. I've always been into shopping, and I've always been very aesthetic, in a sense.

What you want, as an actor, is a great leader. I can't bear it when I work with a director who is wishy-washy and says, "What did you think?"

Veracity does not consist in saying, but in the intention of communicating the truth.

I think about the body kind of all the time, being as how I'm really uncomfortable in mine.

A real relationship is like a river; the deeper it gets the less noise it makes.