I've Never Let The Criticism Deter Me.

It's Very Funny, American Society: White Culture Can Do All Sorts Of Things And Get Away With It, But The Minute A Black Person Does It, It's Interpreted In Some Way.

A Great Piece Of Literature Encompasses All That Is And All That Will Be.

One Day I Was Living Silently In A Personal Hell, Without Anyone To Tell What I Felt, Without Even Knowing That The Feelings I Had Were Possible To Have; And Then One Day I Was Not Living Like That At All. I Had Begun To See The Past Like This: There Is A Line; You Can Draw It Yourself, Or Sometimes It Gets Drawn For You; Either Way, There It Is, Your Past, A Collection Of People You Used To Be And Things You Used To Do. Your Past Is The Person You No Longer Are, The Situations You Are No Longer In.

I Write Out Of Defiance.

I Had Come To Feel That My Mother's Love For Me Was Designed Solely To Make Me Into An Echo Of Her; And I Didn't Know Why, But I Felt That I Would Rather Be Dead Than Become Just An Echo Of Someone.