“I am bleak heroism of words that refuse to be buried alive with the liars.”

For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.

We do not have to romanticize our past in order to be aware of how it seeds our present.

The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women.

For each of us as women, there is a dark place within, where hidden and growing our true spirit rises, beautiful and tough as chestnut stanchions against our nightmare of weakness.

I learned so much from listening to people. And all I knew was, the only thing I had was honesty and openness.

I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.

Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.

We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other.

I believe one of the hardest things you can do is conquer your fears, but if you have a goal, then it’s your job to open up and let it be real no matter how scary it seems.

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.

If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they probably will not survive.

If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they probably will not survive.

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.

Construct templates for possible futures, and focus our rage for change upon our enemies rather than upon each other.

How hard it is to sleep in the middle of life.

The next war… may well bury Western civilization forever.

they’ve got television and the electronic games that they can bury themselves in like ostriches. They don’t have to pay attention to what’s going on in the world around them.

We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.

We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Let no one honour me with tears, or bury me with lamentation. Why? Because I fly hither and thither, living in the mouths of me. [Lat., Nemo me lacrymis decoret, nec funera fletu. Faxit cur? Volito vivu’ per ora virum.]

How often we see the greatest genius buried in obscurity!

Nothing could part us in life, but now in death we are likely to change places, you the Roman lying here in Egyptian soil, and I, helpless woman that I am, being buried in Italy.

Success is buried on the other side of frustration; unfortunately some people don’t do what it takes to get to the other side.