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" Achievement brings its own anticlimax. "

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" There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know. "

" Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: 'I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.' "

" At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice. "

" As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them. "

" It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. "

" Bitterness is cancer - it eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure. "

" The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair. "

" I'm not a writer who teaches. I'm a teacher who writes. "

" My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang. "

" I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they'll do wonders. I count on them. "

" If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart. "

" If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. "

" All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike. "

" I created myself. I have taught myself so much. "

" I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it. "

" I was a dancer for many years. I was a premier dancer with 'Porgy and Bess,' the opera. And I taught dance some, in different places. "

" There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth. "

" In all my work, I try to say - 'You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?' "

" You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise. "

" It's very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race. "

" I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it. "

" I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that. "

" The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society. "

" Nothing will work unless you do. "

" You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, 'I'm a representative.' "

" I don't think there's such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind. "

" I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best - I mean, when I'm at my best - of the good Southern black preachers. The lyricism of the spirituals and the directness of gospel songs and the mystery of blues are in my music or in my poetry and prose, or I missed everything. "

" I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English. "

" Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone. "

" Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.' "