Being bitter does not help me. Being bitter just gives me frown lines - Jewelle Gomez

Another element I feel contributes to seeing ourselves as a visionary force is our capacity for joy...We must continue to see that potential for joy as we become old and jaded. And that's one of the things that conferences like this can do: make you feel old and jaded.

One of the elements in visionary force for me is anger-anger at injustice, not just anger that you specifically did not get what you wanted, but anger at the ramifications for others like yourself who may not have gotten what they wanted.

our society is not monochromatic. There is nothing in this society, there is no book on any bestseller list, there is no painting in the museum of modern art, there is no statuary in any museum in this country created by a U.S. citizen that was not informed by the multicultural nature of this society.