“A friend gathers all the pieces and gives them back in the right order.”

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

She learned the intricacy of loneliness: the horror of color, the roar of soundlessness and the menace of familiar objects lying still.

You are your best thing.

I didn’t want to speak for black people. I wanted to speak to and to be among. It’s us.

I’ve spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books.

Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.

Lonely was much better than alone.

Anything dead coming back to life hurts.

I type in one place, but I write all over the house.

There is an incredible amount of magic and feistiness in black men that nobody has been able to wipe out. But everybody has tried.

Writing is really a way of thinking–not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.

There is really nothing more to say-except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.

I get angry about things, then go on and work.

When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same.

As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.

You need a whole community to raise a child. I have raised two children, alone.

I mean I can do it when I’m very relaxed, and with good friends, then I think I can be amusing.

What’s most important in a friendship? Tolerance and loyalty.

The deeper the solitude the less the sense of loneliness, and the nearer our friends.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Success, fame, and fortune, they’re all illusions. All there is that is real is the friendship that two can share.

People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend.

Making new friends is tough. You don’t really know who to trust when you’re away from people that you love a lot.

Sometimes you will never know the value of something,until it becomes a memory.