"Racism has been for everyone like a horrible, tragic car crash, and we've all been heavily sedated from it. If we don't come into consciousness of this tragedy, there's going to be a violent awakening we don't want. The question is, can we wake up?"

"To live your life well, and have respect for what came before or after - there's a strong respect for that in African culture."

"I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment."

"I made a real specific decision when I came out of school and most artists were writing about home - if you were a woman, you were writing about being a woman - and I decided not to do that, write about what you know. That's not what I do. I went as far away from home as possible in terms of the development of my imagination."

"Dreams can be like charades in which we act out words rather than see or speak them."

"I have nothing to do with the selection of stories. I'm the reporter."

"Banks are so protected from liability they would have to really do something that was their mistake in order for them to be liable for it. Banks don't look at signatures. They're processing millions of checks and they have very little liability."

"There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake."