I don't think a female running a house is a problem, a broken family. It's perceived as one because of the notion that a head is a man.
I don't think anybody cares about unwed mothers unless they're black or poor. The question is not morality, the question is money. That's what we're upset about.
I get angry about things, then go on and work.
I like marriage. The idea.
I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes.
I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.
I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we're demons.
I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.
I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, from the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that there was something deficient about such people.
If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it.
A lot of black people believe that Jews in this country have become white. They behave like white people rather than Jewish people.
I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it.
I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can't do anything anyway.
Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
For a long time I was convinced that the conflict between Jewish people and black people in this country was a media event.