“When I was eight years old, I wrote a paragraph-long short story about a goat on my mother's hundred-pound, black-and-white-screen laptop. The story came about largely because I liked the way the word 'goat' looked on the page, but I decided then and there that I wanted to be a writer. That desire never changed.” WayYearsLongStoriesWantedMotherDesireBlackWhiteChangedPagesHundredDecidedEightScreensPoundsShort StoryBlack And WhiteNever ChangeGoatsParagraphLaptops Author:Tea Obreht
“The sky was horribly dark , but one could distinctly see tattered clouds , and between them fathomless black patches. Suddenly I noticed in one of these patches a star , and began watching it intently. That was because that star had given me an idea : I decided to kill myself that night .” IdeasNightGivenStarsBlackDarkSkyDecidedCloudsPatches Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Black people's music is in a class by itself and always has been. There's nothing like it. The reason for that is because it was not tampered with by white people. It was not on the media. It was not anywhere except where black people were. And it is one of the art forms in which black people decided what is good in it. Nobody told them. What surfaced and what floated to the top, were the giants and the best.” PeopleHas BeensArtReasonFormBlackWhiteClassMediaMusic IsDecidedGiantsBlack People Author:Toni Morrison
“No other creative field is as closed to those who are not white and male as is the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing that I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.” FirstsBelieveArtArtistHumanityBlackWhiteCreativeSacrificeFieldsSceneRacismDecidedMalesVisualsSexismBlack WomenPenetrateBlacknessVisual Art Author:Faith Ringgold
“I didn't realize, when I decided to be a comic, that a black person had never been allowed to stand flat-footed in America and talk to white folks. It never happened before.” PersonsAmericaBlackRealizingWhiteHappenedDecidedFolksComicFlatsBlack Person Author:Dick Gregory
“Barack Obama didn't get elected president, would never have been elected president, had he decided to run as a black candidate. In order to reach the broadest number of people you have to speak to their interests as broadly as you can.” PeopleHas BeensRunningOrderSpeakBlackPresidentInterestNumbersDecidedBarackCandidates Author:Gwen Ifill
“I decided to become an actor at five. I saw the most gorgeous woman that I had ever seen in my five years of living on television. She had on a long, red dress and her eyelashes looked like butterflies and I said, "Grandmamma, who is that?" She said, "Baby, that's Lola Falana." I said, "That's it right there. I want to be black, fabulous, and on TV."” WantYearsLongSaidActorsBlackFiveSawsTelevisionTvsBabyRedDecidedDressesFive YearsButterflyFabulousGorgeousLiving OnEyelashesLike A ButterflyGorgeous Women Author:Niecy Nash