Birth, life, and death each took place on the hidden side of a leaf.

I don't do the things other people call "play."

She is a friend of my mind... The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.

The loneliest woman in the world is a woman without a close woman friend.

My world did not get smaller because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger.

Love just seems to make life not just livable, but a gallant, gallant event.

I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me.

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

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

We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.~ Nobel Prize speech

The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back...maybe you'd have a little love left over for the next one. ~ Beloved

When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same.

The function of freedom is to free somebody else.

When you surrender to the air, you can ride it.