I learned to teach grammar. And then I realized that we can’t separate these two things. We have to do them together because they’re integral. That’s when I learned how important grammar is, that part of the understanding process is grammatical.

For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.

When patriarchy dismisses us, it encourages our murderers. When radical lesbian feminist theory dismisses us, it encourages its own demise.

We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.

The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.

Survival is not a theory. In what way do I contribute to the subjugation of any part of those who I define as my people?

So the question arises in my mind, Mary, do you ever really read the work of Black women? Did you ever read my words, or did you merely finger through them for quotations which you thought might valuably support an already conceived idea concerning some old and distorted connection between us? This is not a rhetorical question.

Everything can be used / except what is wasteful / (you will need / to remember this when you are accused of destruction.)

Too often, we pour the energy needed for recognizing and exploring difference into pretending those differences are insurmountable barriers, or that they do not exist at all. This results in a voluntary isolation, or false and treacherous connections.