Brandi L. Bates

"In order to grow, I promise you'll have to let go of some habits. 10 times out of 10, they'll be the habits you're most in love with."

"The light of an early Summer afternoon as it slips toward dusk has so many good things wrapped up in it.."

"On Slavery: The saddest slap in the face is we have NO monument, no real statues or memorials, no special day of Atonement or Remembrance (NOT ONE), no thanks for 400+ years of free labor, forced servitude across the Trans-Atlantic, ass beatings, buying ourselves and families out of slavery, rape and plunder...but everyone else has monuments, special museums, and even movies. This is what America thinks of black people, so-called black president and all, who has been largely silent on this subject...we'll even celebrate Leprechauns, Easter Bunnies, and Secretary's Day before we acknowledge our history."

"Everyone's life changes when they meet their Obi-Wan & their Yoda, or their Morpheus & their Oracle; those who help remove the veil."

"I don't want to be around people who accept me as is, in my unrefined state of becoming. I consistently want people around me who push and encourage me to be my ultimate best, who bring out the inner diamonds. I want to be around those intellectual giants who extract the gold within me, those who force me to read, to attend classes, seminars, conferences, and who steep me in an environment of perpetual growth and upward mobility. Not trying to be funny, but I've learned that I simply cannot afford to invest too much time around mediocrity. It's contagious."

"When my son speaks of playing sports, I've always told him: playing on the team is great, but aspire to be the guy who owns the team. I've always told my son: most of the guys on the team will end up bankrupt with bum knees, but not the guy who owns that franchise."

"Never accept yourself as a finished product. Be a finished product when you die. As long as you have breath in your lungs, expand yourself."

"Every morning I look in the mirror and remind myself: "No one owes you sh*t!" In this way, I am never disappointed. Never placing blame."

"Some books must be sipped slowly like a strong bourbon. Most books must be devoured more than once because as you age you distill more."

"Whatever it is you want in this life, be it material things, a place you want to be, or an experience you want to have, you must first make it real in the realm of your consciousness."

"A writer will divine a metaphor from a pattern on a dress, or a gesture, because sunsets have been done before."

"thighs made of hymns, I read 'em like I'm reading runes. Now tell me where my future lies...your neck, can I Savion on it?"

"can't even sleep through the night without you and those sun-dried ginger ale complected limbs crocheted into my thighs..."

"When the door to my writing chamber gasps shut and the almost imperceptible sigh of a rose petal falls on my desk, I know that my muse is present."

"Wrote my way out of the hood...thought my way out of poverty! Don't tell me that knowledge isn't power. Education changes everything."

"You and those shot-glass eyes, deep swirling pools of 80-proof firewater, with the depth and profundity of Saturn’s spinning pulsars…"

"I will Basquiat the canvas of your body like a Broadway Junction wall…and Gordon Parks you for those dark midnights when your scent fades."

"All those other girls are cake... I'm Crème brûlée... Tiramisu, if you will. Just a few notches above."