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" In becoming an American, from Europe, what one has in common with that other immigrant is contempt for me-it's nothing else but color. "

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" Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it. "

" I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can't do anything anyway. "

" I get angry about things, then go on and work. "

" If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. "

" In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. "

" I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort. "

" There is nothing of any consequence in education, in the economy, in city planning, in social policy that does not concern black people. "

" At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. "

" For a long time I was convinced that the conflict between Jewish people and black people in this country was a media event. "

" I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes. "

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" The body is ready to have babies. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can handle it. "

" Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war. "

" It's been mentioned or suggested that Paradise will not be well studied, because it's about this unimportant intellectual topic, which is religion. "

" I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it. "

" I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we're demons. "

" Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form. "

" Some Native American writers enjoy being called Native American writers. "

" Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are. "

" We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. "

" If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. "

" One of my kids was born in 1968. There were going to be political difficulties, but they were never going to have that level of hatred and contempt that my brothers and my sister and myself were exposed to. "

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" There is really nothing more to say-except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how. "

" I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, from the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that there was something deficient about such people. "

" My children are delightful people, whom I would love even if they weren't my children. "

" All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. "