I Would Be Lost Without The Feeling

I Had Been A Girl Of Whom Certain Things Were Expected, None Of Them Too Bad: A Career As A Nurse, For Example; A Sense Of Duty To My Parents; Obedience To The Law And Worship Of Convention. But In One Year Of Being Away From Home, That Girl Had Gone Out Of Existence.

I'm Writing Out Of Desperation. I Felt Compelled To Write To Make Sense Of It To Myself - So I Don't End Up Saying Peculiar Things Like 'i'm Black And I'm Proud.' I Write So I Don't End Up As A Set Of Slogans And Clichés.

The Garden Has Taught Me To Live, To Appreciate The Times When Things Are Fallow And When They're Not.

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 Nobler One.

The People Who Invented Race, Who Grouped Us Together As "black," Were Inventing And Categorizing Their Ability To Do Something Vicious And Wrong.