“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black; it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life de...”

“And I got to thinking about the moral meaning of memory, per se. And what it means to forget, what it means to fail to find and preserve the connection with the dead whose lives you, or I, want or ...”

“... mommahelp meturn the face of historyto your face.- Getting Down To Get Over - Dedicated To My Mother”

“A man is not a tree'...If we remain where we start from we will neither grow nor flourish.”

“To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that's political, in its most profound way.”

“Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.”

“Im not a woman you bring home to Mother, pick out china patterns with, or Mary forefend, breed. Ive seen a chunk of the universe, true, but theres still so much more to see. I doubt Ill ever cure t...”

“My hope, my heaven, my trust must be,My gentle guide, in following thee.”

“Amory took to writing poetry on spring afternoons, in the gardens of the big estates near Princeton, while swans made effective atmosphere in the artificial pools, and slow clouds sailed harmonious...”