“He can’t value you more than you value yourself.”

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.

Black women have always been friends. I mean, if you didn’t have each other you had nothing.

The pieces I am, she gather them and gave them back to me in all the right order.

When a child walks in the room, your child or anybody else’s child, do your eyes light up? That’s what they’re looking for.

Make a difference about something other than yourselves.

The enemy is not men. The enemy is the concept of patriarchy, the concept of patriarchy as the way to run the world or do things.

In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity – it is a prerequisite.

Don’t spend major time on minor things.

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

As exchange-values, all commodities are merely definite quantities of congealed labour-time.

People miss happiness by chasing after false values and repressing the feelings that make life valuable and beautiful.

Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.

Never a button without a buttonhole.

When you’ve got a player who does what he does at that pace this late in the game than you know you’ve got an invaluable talent.