In honor of her 84th birthday.

Flickr / Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ / Via Flickr: 73230975@N03

2. "Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul." - The Nobel Lecture in Literature

3. "Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another." - Beloved

4. "It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love ... You can't own a human being." - Song of Solomon

From Beloved.

Flickr / AwayWeGo210 / Via Flickr: awaywego210

6. "Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that — it's helpless ... it's absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers ... and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever."

7. "Love is never any better than the lover. " - The Bluest Eye

8. "She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it's there, because it can't hurt, and because what difference does it make?" - Song of Solomon

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