Every Time I End A Book, I

"race." I Really Can't Understand It As Anything Other Than Something People Say. The People Who Have Said That You And I Are Both "black" And Therefore Deserve A Certain Kind Of Interaction With The World, They Make Race. I Can't Take Them Seriously.

For Me, Writing Isn't A Way Of Being Public Or Private; It's Just A Way Of Being. The Process Is Always Full Of Pain, But I Like That. It's A Reality, And I Just Accept It As Something Not To Be Avoided. This Is The Life I Have. This Is The Life I Write About.

Life Has A Truth To It, And It's Complicated - It's Love And It's Hatred.

Once You Cease To Be A Master, Once You Throw Off Your Master's Yoke, You Are No Longer Human Rubbish, You Are A Human Being, And All The Things That Adds Up To. So, Too, With The Slaves. Once They Are No Longer Slaves, Once They Are Free, They Are No Longer Noble And Exalted; They Are Just Human Beings.

I Was A New Person Then, I Knew Things I Had Not Known Before, I Knew Things That You Can Know Only If You Have Been Through What I Had Just Been Through.