I don’t do the things other people call “play.”
And I am all the things I have ever loved: scuppernong wine, cool baptisms in silent water, dream books and number playing.
I don’t think one parent can raise a child. I don’t think two parents can raise a child. You really need the whole village.
I know that my books are worthy, which is separate from me.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Don’t try to write through it, to force it. Many do, but that won’t work. Just wait, it will come.
Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created.
Everywhere, everywhere, children are the scorned people of the earth.
Let your face speak what’s in your heart.
When a man angers you, he conquers you.
Long before I was a success, my parents made me feel like I could be one.
Make a difference, does it? You stay the night here snake get you.
Unless carefree, mother love was a killer.
Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something?
New York is the last true city.
You need intelligence, and you need to look. You need a gaze, a wide gaze, penetrating and roving – thats what’s useful for art.
Don’t tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear’s caul.
If you can’t count, they can cheat you. If you can’t read, they can beat you.
Sexist language, racist language, theistic language – all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not, permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.
The difference between that which is humane and that which is patriotic is a vital difference.
Race is the least reliable information you can have about someone. It’s real information, but it tells you next to nothing.