“Let your face speak what’s in your heart.”

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.

You are your own stories.

I don’t think one parent can raise a child. I don’t think two parents can raise a child. You really need the whole village.

But to find out the truth about how dreams die, one should never take the word of the dreamer.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.

Somewhere along the way, she weaved herself so deeply into my veins I can’t fucking inhale without her breathing life into me.

You are not separate from love, love is all that you are.

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

Fools always blame the fire when they burn their fingers.

When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.

Meditation is not about feeling a certain way. It’s about feeling the way you feel.