Quotes from Ntozake Shange

Multiculturalism is a white people joke.

Where there is a woman there is magic.

Right now being born a girl is to be born threatened.

Being alive and being a woman is all I got, but being colored is a metaphysical dilemma I haven't conquered yet.

I never intended to go to Broadway. I was very happy being in an Off Broadway theater and having an Off Broadway life. What it did to me is try to fit a round peg - that's me - into a whole bunch of square buildings. I just didn't fit.

i found god in myself& i loved her/ i loved her fiercely

My characters don't talk necessarily in a normal American way of talking. They talk a little different.

I've still got my characters in my head, and I can still hear them. When I go to the grocery store, I hear them.

I'm a firm believer that language and how we use language determines how we act, and how we act then determines our lives and other people's lives.

our dreams draw blood from old sores.

S]ince I became a woman, boys were gonna follow me around more often, 'cause they could follow the trail of stars that fall from between my legs after dark.

i am more/ than i am not/

I was a happy young woman and I just happened to write poetry. I wasn't trying to get anywhere, I was where I wanted to be..." Rest In love Queen!!

i'm a poet who writes in english come to share the worlds witchu

one thing i dont need is any more apologies i got sorry greetin me at my front door you can keep yrs i dont know what to do wit em they dont open doors or bring the sun back they dont make me happy

Sassafras had never wanted to weave, she just couldn't help it. There was something about the feel of raw fleece and finished threads and dainty patterned pieces that was as essential to her as dancing to Carmen De Lavallade, or singing to Aretha Franklin. Her mama had done it, and her mama before that; and making cloth was the only tradition Sassafras inherited that gave her a sense of womanhood that was rich and sensuous, not tired and stingy.

anyway, the whole world knows, european & non-european alike, the whole world knows that nobody loves the black woman like they love farrah fawcett-majors. the whole world dont turn out for a dead black woman like they did for marilyn monroe. (actually, the demise of josephine baker waz an international event, but she waz also a war hero)

i usedta live in the world then i moved to HARLEM & my universe is now six blocks

Lord help women who shake hands like a dead fish.

When you realize your blood has come, smile; an honest smile, for you are about to have an intense union with your magic. This is a private time...for thinking and dreaming. [D]raining worries, fall away as your body lets what she doesn't need go from her. Remember that you are a river; your banks are red honey where the Moon wanders.

alla my niggah temper came outta control & i wdnt dance wit nobody & i talked English loud & i love you more than i waz mad

A child had a right to be a child. Even in Mississippi a girl was a girl till her time came. White folks or no white folks. Nobody sent a little ol' thing out to take up for the whole damn race.

The pedicure Regina executed herself. She wanted Betsey to feel relaxed and cared about. The way all little Negro girls should feel. Not cramped or out of place, or funny-looking or easy. Just lovely and well-loved.

What ever was she going to do? She took the emery boards from the top left drawer and started doing her nails. She was going to play bridge, but before she did that she was going to have a scotch and soda and play a game of solitaire with the prettiest hands a woman with this many problems could have.