Bebe Moore Campbell Quotations

To me, there's no point in writing merely to entertain.

Race, redemption and healing - thats my thing.

I have to entertain, because if I don't entertain you, you're not going to continue reading. But if I'm not out to enlighten, or change your mind about something, or change your behavior, then I really don't want to take the journey.

African Americans know about racism, but I don't think we really know the causes. I decided it's first of all a family problem.

I had an agent who spent eight years - eight years! - trying to sell my stories. She sold other people's work; she just didn't sell mine.

I would get up at 3 in the morning and write. Or sometimes I would write at midnight. Or I would write when my child napped. It wasn't a burden. I was so enthused about what I was doing at the time that I really didn't mind.

Discipline is the servant of inspiration.

Forgiveness is the key to the recovery of the soul.

Knowing who you are begins in the mind.

The music was as much a gift as sunshine, as rain, as any blessing ever prayed for.

People of color, particularly African Americans, feel the stigma more keenly. In a race-conscious society, some don't want to be perceived as having yet another deficit.

My color is my joy and not my burden...

You live your life between your ears.

When we finally stop asking America to love us and begin to love ourselves, we will prosper as a people.

Once my loved one accepted the diagnosis, healing began for the entire family, but it took too long. It took years. Can't we, as a nation, begin to speed up that process? We need a national campaign to destigmatize mental illness, especially one targeted toward African Americans. The message must go on billboards and in radio and TV public service announcements. It must be preached from pulpits and discussed in community forums. It's not shameful to have a mental illness. Get treatment. Recovery is possible.

As I grow older part of my emotional survival plan must be to actively seek inspiration instead of passively waiting for it to find me.