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

The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.

A dream is just a nightmare with lipstick.

Today is always here,’ said Sethe. ‘Tomorrow, never.

You have to be a little tough, and rely on yourself. And tell people ‘No’.

To get to a place where you could love anything you chose – not to need permission for desire – well now that was freedom.

We mistook violence for passion, indolence for leisure, and thought recklessness was freedom.

You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.

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

If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.

Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.

Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do.

All important things are hard.

Black people’s music is in a class by itself and always has been.

I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can’t teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.

From my point of view, your life is already a miracle of chance waiting for you to shape its destiny.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.

A check or credit card, a Gucci bag strap, anything of value will do. Give as you live.

Men do not value a good deed unless it brings a reward.

I do like my hair. It took a while to come around to the fact that it was quite a unique value point.

We have the ability to find value in anything, but just because something has value doesn’t mean it has to be important to us.

I am a canvas, that I design with colors of identity to madness filled masterpiece of worthiness.

I think I’ve been around for a while. But I still have to pay my dues.

Once I realized the value of making people laugh, I got very good at it. Fast.

How much do you value life? Sixty-four.