“I was, being human, born alone;I am, being woman, hard beset;I live by squeezing from a stoneThe little nourishment I get.”

“I am a human being; I am a woman; I am a black woman; I am an African. Once I was free; then I was captured and became a slave; but inside me, I have never been a slave; even today, inside me, here, and here, I am still a free woman.”

“Living as I do with human beings, the more that I observe them, the more I am forced to conclude that they are selfish.”

“There is a certain way of being human that is my way. I am called upon to live my life in this way, and not in imitation of anyone else's life. But this notion gives a new importance to being true to myself. If I am not, I miss the point of my life; I miss what being human is for me.”

“Not a perfect soul, I am perfecting. Not a human being, I am a human becoming.”

“Being left alone - and I am being left alone - isn't quite as much what I wanted as I thought. Is this how people become evil? I don't want to be.”