"there's nothing noble about keeping one's self small"

"fame and fortune must be corrupting"

"In mothering, I didn’t think about myself as being a Black mother. I’m a mother"

"To be held in esteem by other people is, for me, a humbling experience."

"I grew up in a time where these things begin in childhood—your grandparents, aunts, uncles, your own parents, the tea…"

"There was something about going through a pledge period with other young women who you really didn't know very well"

"Well, you can respect people. But can you depend on that person? Can you trust that person? And can you be depended u…"

"in your own thought, you create opportunities and obstacles"

"I didn’t think about my children being Black children; I think of my children being children"

"The ethnicity is obvious — it’s in our food, it’s in the music we listen to, it’s in the books we read, it’s in the w…"