Bell hooks

Usually, when people talk about the "strength" of black women . . . . they ignore the reality that to be strong in the face of oppression is not the same as overcoming oppression, that endurance is not to be confused with transformation.

I believe that this nation can only heal from the wounds of racism if we all begin to love blackness. And by that I don't mean that we love only that which is best within us, but that we're also able to love that which is faltering, which is wounded, which is contradictory, incomplete.

I think this is what hooks one to gardening: it is the closest one can come to being present at creation.

A bell's not a bell 'til you ring it A song's not a song 'til you sing it Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay Love isn't love 'til you give it away!

He's a pig. He likes women and he's a philanderer.