“He pondered that a little while and then he asked, do Black people have to pay for their doctors, too? Because that's what TV programs had said. I smiled a little at this and told him it's not only Black people who have to pay for doctors and medical care; all people in America have to. Ah, he said. And suppose you don't have the money to pay? Well, I said, if you don't have the money to pay, sometimes you died. And there was no mistaking my gesture, even though he had to wait for the translator to translate it. We left him looking absolutely nonplussed, standing in the middle of the square with his mouth open and his hand under his chin staring after me, as in utter amazement that human beings could die from lack of medical care. It's things like that that keep me dreaming about Russia long after I've returned.”

“There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”

“Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now.”

“Black women sharing close ties with each other, politically or emotionally, are not the enemies of Black men.”

“We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other.”

“When we create out of our experiences, as feminists of color, women of color, we have to develop those structures that will present and circulate our culture.”

“Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.”

“Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever.”

“Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.”

“When I use my strength in the service of my vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid.”

“When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”