I write out of defiance..

Time is the element that controls the consciousness, the very being of the people..

There's a difference between bravery and rash stupidity..

I'm always telling my students go to law school or become a doctor, do something, and then write. First of all you should have something to write abo….

The slave trade was globalism. Why people insist that globalism, after its hideous history, is a good thing, I do not know..

It is true that our skin is sort of more or less the same shade. But is it true that our skin color makes us a distinctive race? No..

There are things that make us choose, on certain days, on certain nights, the opposite of love, in all its variations. But I want to acknowledge that….

in the place I am from ... a grave is topped off with a huge mound of loose earth - carelessly, as if piled up in child's play, not serious at all - ….

Love and hatred don't take turns; they exist side by side at the same time. And one's duty, one's obligation every day, is to choose to follow the no….

I'm always surprised to hear or read my work described, "In angry tones, she says." No! In truthful tones! Does truth have a tone? I don't know..

In a way, a garden is the most useless of creations, the most slippery of creations: it is not like a painting or a piece of sculpture-it won't accru….

A psychiatrist once asked me to draw a picture of my family. This is when I was a member of a family of four. I drew the three other people in the fa….

The sound of words in a novel is a pretty amazing thing, and I am concerned with the sound of every word I write..

The families of rabbits or woodchucks will eat the salad greens just before they are ready to be picked; I plot ways to kill these animals but can ne….

If you just sit there, and you're a writer, you're bound to write crap. A lot of American writing is crap. And a lot of American writers are professi….

Express everything you like. No word can hurt you. None. No idea can hurt you. Not being able to express an idea or word will hurt you more. Like a b….

I loved Charlotte Bronte when I was little, and I wanted to be Charlotte Bronte the way people want to be a princess..

The inevitable is no less a shock just because it is inevitable..

I didn't think of myself as an outsider because of my race because... where I grew up I was the same race as almost everyone else... It is true that ….

I think life is difficult and that's that. I am not at all - absolutely not at all - interested in the pursuit of happiness. I am not interested in t….

People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman..