Toni Cade Bambara

"The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you know the stuff you're dealing with, the forces that make you move. Then the facts make sense."

"If you write what you know, you're always going to be upstaged by life itself."

"Stories are important. They keep us alive."

"We have to talk to each other so we can say or do what's supposed to be said or done."

"Revolution begins with the self, in the self."

"I'm trying to be a responsible artist and a responsible citizen."

"We are whole people. We don't need to fragment ourselves."

"Writing is a way of taking stock of your life."

"The duty of the writer is to go as far as possible in the direction of truth."

"I write in order to teach, to reach, to encourage."

"We have to grow. We have to evolve."

"Art is for everybody."

"Don't be the best of the best. Be the only one of the one."

"You are your best thing."

"The struggle is inner: Jimmie refusing to genocide himself."

"We cannot afford to waste each other."

"I've never believed that I had to be a separatist to be a nationalist."

"The truth is, I'm not writing for the sake of writing."

"Community is one of the most important concepts in my work."

"People are more important than paper."

"Your job is not just to write, but to change things."

"Freedom is never given, it must be taken."

"We have to talk about power, about who has it and who doesn't."

"The artist must be a keeper of culture."

"We were never meant to survive."

"Your silence will not protect you."

"I write because I have something to say."

"Stories allow us to transmit knowledge, values, and identity."

"The work is the work."

"We must examine our lives honestly."