“Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.”

“No human being can be more human than another human being. I liberate you from my ignorance.”

“Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.”

“Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware. And the worst part of my awareness was that I didn't know what I was aware of. I knew I knew very little, but I was certain that the things I had yet to learn wouldn't be taught to me at George Washington High School. ”

“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.”

“I speak to the Black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition--about what we can endure, dream, fail at and survive.”

“You dwell in whitened castles with deep and poisoned moats and cannot hear the curses which fill your children's throats.”