The ultimate aim of production is not production of goods but the production of free human beings associated with one another on terms of equality.
Novelists have to love humanity to write anything worthwhile. Poets have to love themselves.
Surviving and believing in tomorrow is just a habit I can't break.
Imagination bound us stronger than love. Within its limitless borders we launched ships and love affairs, discovered lost worlds, made buildings and babies, found husbands, wrote letters and Broadway plays. We made ourselves up everyday.
My mother used to do all the things that were important to her after midnight. . . . Sometimes I'd sneak downstairs and see her knitting, or reading, or writing letters. I'd think of her as a thief, stealing the tail end of the day, the hours nobody else wanted or used.
Racism is a virus. And since nobody's really looking too hard for a cure it reproduces itself over and over again.
I quickly learned that motherhood was a high wire act sometimes performed without a net.
You ever hear girls say that? "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual. " I like to reply with "I'm not honest, but you're interesting!"
A good sweat, with the blood punding through my body, makes me feel alive, revitalized. I gain a sense of mastery and assurance. I feel good about myself. Then I can feel good about others.
As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.
Making the solution seem so completely inevitable and obvious, so uncontrived and natural - it's so hard!