“We are the thoughts we choose to keep.”

“Writing does not exist unless there is someone to read it, and each reader will take something different from a novel, from a chapter, from a line.”

“Good fiction writers have an instinctive understanding of human nature. That’s what makes stories and characters captivating. Good spiritual writers share what they sincerely practice themselves.”

“The creative impulse, the thing that gets deep inside me, goes from brain to the fingertips. When you’re writing by hand, even when you’re not consciously thinking about it, you’re constructing sentences in the best way possible. And I still get the thrill of the clean pad of notepaper and the pencil all sharpened.”

“Your personal writing can heal, grow, and transform your life. Give your words permission to change you.”

“Passion in every word I wrote, passion in every single thought.”

“I swear that girl was born with a pen in her hand, the moon in her hair and stars in her soul.”

“Writing is dreaming with your eyes open — and your heart on fire.”

“The Throes of Poetry – Hymns formed from groans of acquaintance, its rhythm weaving between tranquility, compassions, and peril – like bare feet stomping on broken glass – bleeds, recoils, then steps again.”

“Life is a sea of vibrant color. Jump in.”

“It is a beautiful symphony: the sound of the typewriter keys on paper!”

“Words make it possible for our thoughts to travel through time and survive us.”

“Growth has been a constant part of my life and the getting up and editing out has been the hardest and most important part.”

“This book is about having the courage to stand in the ever-crooked room of black womanhood and summon the magic to set it straight. Even if only for a moment, the act alone heals you just enough for the next tilt of the room.”