I had this idea that I wanted to do this mixture of visions of African American women and visions of African American men. And call it 'The Men' and ….

Creativity helps us realize that we don't have to understand everything. We can enjoy something -feel it and use it- without ever fully comprehending….

You can't sit around and wait for somebody to say who you are. You need to write it and paint it and do it.

I always knew I wanted to be somebody. I think that's where it begins. People decide, "I want to be somebody. I want to make a contribution. I want t….

Because the mask is your face, the face is a mask, so I'm thinking of the face as a mask because of the way I see faces is coming from an African vis….

No other creative field is as closed to those who are not white and male as is the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing that….

The great enemy of creativity is fear. When we're fearful, we freeze up - like a nine-year-old who won't draw pictures, for fear everybody will laugh….

I'm not presumptuous enough to feel that people are going to feel what I have in mind, so I tell a story, you know, let them read something, that doe….

I became a feminist because I wanted to help my daughters, other women and myself aspire to something more than a place behind a good man..

Anyone can fly. All you need is somewhere to go that you can't get to any other way. The next thing you know, you're flying among the stars..

I will always remember when the stars fell down around me and lifted me up above the George Washington Bridge..

I just feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world being able to do what I love and be able to do it all day every day if I like, you know, I mean….

Less is even less, and more is still not quite enough..

When they're looking at my work, they're looking at a painting and they're able to accept it better because it is also a quilt..

I guess I had fun doing it but it has hard memories for me..

I had something I was trying to say and sometimes the message is an easy transmission and sometimes it's a difficult one but I love the power of sayi….