To Begin Is No More Agony Than

Self-determination Has To Mean That The Leader Is Your Individual Gut, And Heart, And Mind Or We're Talking About Power, Again, And Its Rather Well-known Impurities. Who Is Really Going To Care Whether You Live Or Die And Who Is Going To Know The Most Intimate Motivation For Your Laughter And Your Tears Is The Only Person To Be Trusted To Speak For You And To Decide What You Will Or Will Not Do.

To Rescue Our Children We Will Have To Let Them Save Us From The Power We Embody: We Will Have To Trust The Very Difference That They Forever Personify.

As A Poet And Writer, I Deeply Love And I Deeply Hate Words. I Love The Infinite Evidence And Change And Requirements And Possibilities Of Language; Every Human Use Of Words That Is Joyful, Or Honest Or New, Because Experience Is New... But As A Black Poet And Writer, I Hate Words That Cancel My Name And My History And The Freedom Of My Future: I Hate The Words That Condemn And Refuse The Language Of My People In America.

If We Even Tolerate Any Oppression Of Gay And Lesbian Americans, If We Join Those Who Would Intrude Upon The Choices Of Our Hearts, Then Who Among Us Shall Be Free?

A Democratic State Is Not Proven By The Welfare Of The Strong But By The Welfare Of The Weak.