You live your life between your ears.

My color is my joy and not my burden.

Knowing who you are begins in the mind.

Discipline is the servant of inspiration.

Race, redemption and healing - thats my thing.

Race, redemption and healing - that's my thing.

Forgiveness is the key to the recovery of the soul.

To me, there's no point in writing merely to entertain.

The music was as much a gift as sunshine, as rain, as any blessing ever prayed for.

When we finally stop asking America to love us and begin to love ourselves, we will prosper as a people.

African-Americans know about racism, but I don't think we really know the causes. I decided it's first of all a family problem.

African Americans know about racism, but I don't think we really know the causes. I decided it's first of all a family problem.

As I grow older part of my emotional survival plan must be to actively seek inspiration instead of passively waiting for it to find me.

I had an agent who spent eight years - eight years! - trying to sell my stories. She sold other people's work; she just didn't sell mine.

People of color, particularly African Americans, feel the stigma more keenly. In a race-conscious society, some don't want to be perceived as having yet another deficit.

I would get up at 3 in the morning and write. Or sometimes I would write at midnight. Or I would write when my child napped. It wasn't a burden. I was so enthused about what I was doing at the time that I really didn't mind.

I have to entertain, because if I don't entertain you, you're not going to continue reading. But if I'm not out to enlighten, or change your mind about something, or change your behavior, then I really don't want to take the journey.

Once my loved one accepted the diagnosis, healing began for the entire family, but it took too long. It took years. Can't we, as a nation, begin to speed up that process? We need a national campaign to destigmatize mental illness, especially one targeted toward African Americans. The message must go on billboards and in radio and TV public service announcements. It must be preached from pulpits and discussed in community forums. It's not shameful to have a mental illness. Get treatment. Recovery is possible.

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