"Hey, up there? Anyone? We're down here, and we're making bad puns. Please save us from ourselves!" 😂😂😂

"The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, dis- taste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an in- evitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance."

"What is a woman's place in this modern world? I rebel against this question, though so many of my peers ask it. The inherent bias in the inquiry seems invisible to so many of them. They consider themselves progressive because they are willing to challenge many of the assumptions of the past. "They ignore the greater assumption—that a 'place' for women must be defined and set forth to begin with. Half of the population must somehow be reduced to the role arrived at by a single conversation. No matter how broad that role is, it will be-by nature-a reduction from the infinite variety that is womanhood. "I say that there is no role for women-there is, instead, a role for each woman, and she must make it for herself. For some, it will be the role of scholar; for others, it will be the role of wife. For others, it will be both. For yet others, it will be neither. "Do not mistake me in assuming I value one woman's role above another. My point is not to stratify our society-we have done that far too well already-my point is to diversify our discourse. "A woman's strength should not be in her role, whatever she chooses it to be, but in the power to choose that role. It is amazing to me that I even have to make this point, as I see it as the very foundation of our conversation."

"To discover that one's mentor knows little is a terrible thing."

"Exploring your contradictions will mean something different to each person who reads or hears this, but I would recommend such a personal journey to anybody. Nobody knows who the fuck they are, really, for a very long time, and certainly not as a teenager. Sometimes ever. That investigation is a means of getting to know yourself, of assembling your character and accepting that--more often than not--the pieces of yourself may not fit into one box, and that's fine. It's tricky, especially because exploring your contradictions doesn't mean that you're going to resolve them without leaving aspects of yourself behind. But it's worth looking, and invaluable to run those contradictions out to their edges."