For any of us in this room today let's start out by admitting we're lucky. We don't live in the world our mothers lived in our grandmothers lived in where career choices for women were so limited.

Men and women should stay apart till their hearts grow gentle towards one another again.

Breast cancer is not just a disease that strikes at women. It strikes at the very heart of who we are as women: how others perceive us how we perceive ourselves how we live work and raise our families-or whether we do these things at all.

When I get up and work out I'm working out just as much for my girls as I am for me because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly who invests in them but who also invests in herself. It's just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people women and men as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

Oh if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.

My mother was very strong. Once she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father's head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us the love of Black women for each other.

Black women are programmed to define ourselves within this male attention and to compete with each other for it rather than to recognize and move upon our common interests.

But what of black women?... I most sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness up through so devilish a fire.