I did not know if the story was factually true or not, but it was emotionally true [...].

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.

Don't leave inferences to be drawn when evidence can be presented.

Reading was like a drug, a dope. The novels created moods in which I lived for days.

Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.

But the color of a Negro's skin makes him easily recognizable, makes him suspect, converts him into a defenseless target

All literature is protest.

Violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed...It is not a strategy consciously devised. It is the deep, instinctive expression of a human being denied individuality.

Love grows from stable relationships, shared experience, loyalty, devotion, trust.

I knew that I lived in a country in which the aspirations of black people were limited, marked-off. Yet I felt that I had to go somewhere and do something to redeem my being alive.

Make up your mind, Snail! You are half inside your house, And halfway out!

Value of life depends not on your possessions, but on your donation.

All Darkness was one darkness in the end. Of heart or Heavens, one Darkness.

[T]he West did not invent slavery

Congress wants to keep "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Washington politicians are united in their faith. Most worship the same reelection.

The bigger the show, the weirder it is.

I want to live to be 120. That's when I will start worrying about my age.

I'm a ghost," said the small figure, then added, a little uncertainly, "Boo?

I understand, as the young, attractive woman in film, that there's always going to be people seeking out extra salacious things for you to do.

You can never find a Christian who has acquired this valuable knowledge, this saving knowledge, by any process but the everlasting and all-sufficient 'people say.'

All I do is watch TV and films, and when I'm not doing that, I'm making them. I need a hobby!