“I began writing a book on love because I felt that the United States is moving away from love.”

Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.

As long as women are using class or race power to dominate other women, feminist sisterhood cannot be fully realized.

There will be no mass-based feminist movement as long as feminist ideas are understood only by a well-educated few.

All the men I fall for seem to have a commitment problem.

If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice.

If you do not know what you feel, then it is difficult to choose love; it is better to fall. Then you do not have to be responsible for your actions.

The rage of the oppressed is never the same as the rage of the privileged.

The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.

I believe that it is impossible for two individuals not committed to their own and each other’s well being to sustain a healthy and enduring relationship.

When we face pain in relationships our first response is often to sever bonds rather than to maintain commitment.

If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency.

The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is-it’s to imagine what is possible.

To be truly visionary we have to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality.

I think Black people need to take self-esteem seriously.

Any society based on domination supports and condones violence.

Genuine love is rarely an emotional space where needs are instantly gratified.

The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.

Religious fanatics want people to switch off their own minds, ignore the evidence, and blindly follow a holy book based upon private revelation.

Reading one book a day to your child can change the trajectory of their future.

People come, people go – they’ll drift in and out of your life, almost like characters in a favorite book.

I was an imaginative child and learning to read was like unlocking another dimension in my mind.

The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.

The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.