For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly.

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

I'm so tired of waiting, aren't you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?

The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.

A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the Earth And every man is free.

When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed - Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.

Negroes - Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day - They change their mind.

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ... Or does it explode?

I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime.

I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for.

Maya wrapped one leg around him, writhing against him as she threaded her fingers through his hair and held him to her, urging him on."Never stop touching me that way, " Maya rasped.

A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle and an end.

They used to beat me up after Sunday School, I used to get beat up... yeah, that's a nice little thank you from Jesus.

Only a loser finds it impossible to accept a temporary setback. A winner asks why.

I'd been taking singing lessons and I had taken dance, because I loved to dance, but I had never considered myself a professional at all.

Many have told me through the years: 'I think I'll take my chances without Jesus.' And I always come back and say, 'So what chance is that?'

We have a lot of long narrative poems written in the 20th century, but they're not very well known, and they're not read by very many people.

Freedom begins where it ends ignorance.