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

Living simply makes loving simple.

Feminism is for everybody.

Forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?

Whenever women struggle with breast cancer and face better care than ever, that’s feminism.

The political core of any movement for freedom in the society has to have the political imperative to protect free speech.

Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power – not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist.

One of the most subversive institutions in the United States is the public library.

I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else’s whim or to someone else’s ignorance.

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

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

Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.

The people I love, I’m committed to loving for the rest of my life.

What we cannot imagine cannot come into being.

No black woman writer in this culture can write “too much”. Indeed, no woman writer can write “too much”. No woman has ever written enough.

You can only realize change if you live simply. Once people want enormous excess, you can hardly do social change.

To love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds.

To say that behaviors have different ‘meanings’ is only another way of saying that they are controlled by different variables.

To say that behaviors have different ‘meanings’ is only another way of saying that they are controlled by different variables.

A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.

A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.

A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.

The next time you’re disappointed, don’t panic. Don’t give up. Just be patient and let God remind you He’s still in control.

It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled.

I really want people to understand that nobody is perfect and that things happen in life beyond our control.