Quotes from Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Everybody keeps saying be satisfied with Jesus's love, and he will give us our daily bread. I keep waiting, but we never get any bread, so I have to go out and do things for myself.

I believe in God, and I love my brother. But I don't want any religion that will demand I lose my individuality.

I keep thinking about Marcus Garvey and what he says about black people knowing themselves. It's clear that if the so-called Negro goes to school, he earns a degree for knowing the white man, but not for knowing himself . All he learns about himself is slavery. Slavery is not a history of a man; it's a misfortune of a race of people. The black man needs to know the dignity of our race. The only way he will get this knowledge is to take it for himself.

So I've got five books, a building, and a hundred bucks. I'm starting my business tomorrow.

My father said to me when I was a child, 'Boy, set there until I come back.' That was his law and I had to obey him. He went off somewhere and forgot about me. I sat there all day waiting for my father and almost got a stroke from the sun. I said to my son one time, 'Boy, set there until I come back.' You know what he said to me? 'For what?' You're not going to cram down the throats of today's youth what got crammed down my father's. Young people want to know the facts now.

Until the neglected and the rejected are accepted and respected, there's gonna be no damn peace . . . nowhere! Only a tree will stand still while it's being chopped down.

You can't walk straight on a crooked line. You try you'll break your leg. How can you walk straight in a crooked system?

Dad made that up just like he made up the sign over the store. He plays with words until they say what he feels. I guess that makes him a poet.

Me and my dad talk about important things. Things like truth and what it means to be free. Dad says books can help you. Not every book is true, he says, but the more you read, the easier it is to figure out for yourself what is true.