Wherever The Bird With No Feet Flew,

I Have Come To Believe That Caring For Myself Is Not Self-indulgent. Caring For Myself Is An Act Of Survival.

Each Time You Love, Love As Deeply As If It Were Forever.

If Our History Has Taught Us Anything, It Is That Action For Change Directed Against The External Conditions Of Our Oppressions Is Not Enough.

The Speaking Will Get Easier And Easier. And You Will Find You Have Fallen In Love With Your Own Vision, Which You May Never Have Realized You Had. And You Will Lose Some Friends And Lovers, And Realize You Don't Miss Them. And New Ones Will Find You And Cherish You. And At Last You'll Know With Surpassing Certainty That Only One Thing Is More Frightening Than Speaking Your Truth. And That Is Not Speaking.

Black Writers, Of Whatever Quality, Who Step Outside The Pale Of What Black Writers Are Supposed To Write About, Or Who Black Writers Are Supposed To Be, Are Condemned To Silences In Black Literary Circles That Are As Total And As Destructive As Any Imposed By Racism.