He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.

Imagine, I might really become somebody. Someday.

We are missing Michael.But we do know we had him, and we are the world.

I walk into a roomJust as cool as you please,And to a man,The fellows stand orFall down on their knees.

I am never proud to participate in violence, yet, I know that each of us must care enough for ourselves, that we can be ready and able to come to our own defense when and wherever needed.

Oh, Black known and unknown poets, how often have your auctioned pains sustained us? Who will compute the lonely nights made less lonely by your songs, or by the empty pots made less tragic by your...

See, you don't have to think about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing, then you do it without thinking.

Can't Do is like Don't Care. Neither of them have a home.

I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life... her voice slid in and curved down...

The dread of futility has been my life-long plague.

As I ate she began the first of what we later called my lessons in living. She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to...

You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I'll rise.

In the immortal words of Maya Angelou … people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning.

To grow up is to stop putting blame on parents

You see, baby, you have to protect yourself. If you don't protect yourself, you look like a fool asking somebody else to protect you. I thought about that for a second. She was right. A woman needs to...

I will look after you and I will look after anybody you say needs to be looked after, any way you say. I am here. I brought my whole self to you. I am your mother.

The intensity with which young people live demands that they "blank out" as often as possible.

In all the institutions I try to be present and accountable for all I do and leave undone. I know that eventually I shall have to be present and accountable n the presence of God. I do not wish to be...

The world had taken a deep breath and was having doubts about continuing to revolve.

We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do.

Women been gittin' pregnant ever since Eve ate that apple.

Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word , not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the...

Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.

A person is the product of their dreams. So make sure to dream great dreams. And then try to live your dream.

The charitable say in effect, 'I seem to have more than I need and you seem to have less than you need. I would like to share my excess with you.' Fine, if my excess is tangible, money or goods, and...

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.

A story went the rounds about a San Franciscan white matron who refused to sit beside a Negro civilian on the streetcar, even after he made room for her on the seat. Her explanation was that she would...

You only are free when you realize you belong no place - you belong every place - no place at all.

She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle lies the joy.