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" If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive. "

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

" I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell. "

" But the question is a matter of the survival and the teaching. That's what our work comes down to. No matter where we key into it, it's the same work, just different pieces of ourselves doing it. "

" 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. "

" It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. "

" Part of the lesbian consciousness is an absolute recognition of the erotic within our lives and, taking that a step further, dealing with the erotic not only in sexual terms. "

" There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else. "

" There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt. "

" I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. "

" It's a struggle but that's why we exist, so that another generation of Lesbians of color will not have to invent themselves, or their history, all over again. "

" In other words, I would be giving in to a myth of sameness which I think can destroy us. "

" 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. "

" The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot. "

" 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. "

" The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. "

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

" Black women are programmed to define ourselves within this male attention and to compete with each other for it rather than to recognize and move upon our common interests. "

" Our visions begin with our desires. "

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

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

" Attend me, hold me in your muscular flowering arms, protect me from throwing any part of myself away. "

" Black writers, of whatever quality, who step outside the pale of what black writers are supposed to write about, or who black writers are supposed to be, are condemned to silences in black literary circles that are as total and as destructive as any imposed by racism. "

" I would like to do another piece of fiction dealing with a number of issues: Lesbian parenting, the 1960's, and interracial relationships in the Lesbian and Gay community. "

" The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower. "

" But, on the other hand, I get bored with racism too and recognize that there are still many things to be said about a Black person and a White person loving each other in a racist society. "

" 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. "

" In discussions around the hiring and firing of Black faculty at universities, the charge is frequently heard that Black women are more easily hired than are Black men. "

" Art is not living. It is the use of living. "

" I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't. "

" When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak. "