“I always know the ending; that’s where I start.”

In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

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 wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.

Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don’t feel safe.

Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.

The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one.

There’s a difference between writing for a living and writing for life. If you write for a living, you make enormous compromises. If you write for life, you’ll work hard; you’ll do what’s honest, not what pays.

Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.

For me the history of the place of black people in this country is so varied, complex and beautiful. And impactful.

For me the history of the place of black people in this country is so varied, complex and beautiful. And impactful.

Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

And I am all the things I have ever loved: scuppernong wine, cool baptisms in silent water, dream books and number playing.

I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are.

It is sheer good fortune to miss somebody long before they leave you.

All paradises, all utopias are designed by who is not there, by the people who are not allowed in.

I personally believe breathatarianism to be the highest mode of human living breathing in pure air, absorbing the direct light and energies of the sun, bathing in pure water I look at the obituaries every morning and ain’t nobody listed but you eaters.

I get the feeling so I’m sure.

I’ve been told my voice is weird my whole life but now I’m Grammy Nominated with Platinum and Gold songs. Just believe in yourself, stay humble, and be a good person.

My belief is, you know, certain things have to be explained that’s never been explained.

Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.

I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.

I need to be the best Chris Brown I can be.

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.