Who wants to live with one foot in hell just for the sake of nostalgia Our time is forever now..

The Black writer explains pain to those who inflict it..

Zis and zat' when uttered by the French is considered charming, but 'dis and dat' as an Africanism is ridiculed as gross and ugly..

And realizing there is no such thing as the Black experience. Time and events allow for change on both sides..

I'm independent as a hog on ice and a hog on ice is dead, cold, well-preserved and don't need a mother'grabbin, thing..

Writers are encouraged to "keep 'em laughing" and complain "with good humor" in order to "win" allies. The joke is always on ourselves..

I believe racism has killed more people than speed, heroin, or cancer, and will continue to kill until it is no more..

We think of poverty as a condition simply meaning a lack of funds, no money, but when one sees fifth, sixth, and seventh generation poor, it is clear….

It's a poor kind of man that won't fight for his own freedom..

Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice..

Some truth has no nourishment in it..

"The good old days." The only good days are ahead..

It becomes almost second nature to be on guard against the creative pattern of our own thought..

Truth is simply whatever you can bring yourself to believe..

Thoughts can hurt like real pain..

The twisted circumstances under which we live is grist for the writing mill, the loving, hating and discovering, finding new handles for old pitchers….

Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave - and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way..

I think women need kindness more than love. When one human being is kind to another, it's a very deep matter..

That's how women are, always studyin' each other and wonderin' how they look up 'gainst the next..

your soul is an inner something that is another you and hardly anybody knows what it's really thinkin' except you..

Everybody's got some sin, but if it troubles your heart you're a gentle sinner, just a good soul gone wrong..