“Racism and the days of slavery does not exist in me or my thought or everyday living. It does not encompass me as a person. I have a personality, a daily living pattern and a culture that dictates who I am. Racism is out side of me, it is not who I am. It is an unacceptable part of someone else’s bitter thoughts that sometimes squeezes it way into my life. Racism is an annoyance, an irritation… a sickness.”

“Let me put it this way: I am not a bad person, so if there is a god I would hope that he would judge me on what I do and who I am, as against someone that does believe but still doesn’t live a good life.”

“Another response to racism has been the establishment of unlearning racism workshops, which are often led by white women. These workshops are important, yet they tend to focus primarily on cathartic individual psychological personal prejudice without stressing the need for corresponding change in political commitment and action. A woman who attends an unlearning racism workshop and learns to acknowledge that she is racist is no less a threat than one who does not. Acknowledgment of racism is significant when it leads to transformation.”

“Who am I really? Am I still the same person if I'm not even technically a person anymore? Does being stronger make me different? Will it?”

“Some day soon, perhaps in forty years, there will be no one alive who has ever known me. That's when I will be truly dead - when I exist in no one's memory. I thought a lot about how someone very old is the last living individual to have known some person or cluster of people. When that person dies, the whole cluster dies, too, vanishes from the living memory. I wonder who that person will be for me. Whose death will make me truly dead?”

“Meet Jan! (Quotes from Jan Does Europe)"I'm having a wonderful life."I visualize myself strong, beautiful and good."I love with all of me."Everyday my mind is filled with thoughts of people I love."I am the person I want to be."I do all the things I fear I can't."I'm where I should be."I have much to be happy for."Isn't that the point, to enjoy our lives no matter what?”