I think that Malcolm X was the most remarkable historical figure produced by Black America in the 20th century.

Hope is essential to any political struggle for radical change when the overall social climate promotes disillusionment and despair.

I am convinced that the Black man will only reach his full potential when he learns to draw upon the strengths and insights of the Black woman.

The liberal uses the radical's language to achieve the conservative's aim: the preservation of the capitalist system, and the traditional ethnic/racial hierarchy within society.

At the heart of the fractured soul of America is the frightening chasm of race.

Whiteness in a racist, corporate-controlled society is like having the image of an American Express Cardstamped on one's face: immediately you are “universally accepted.”

The crisis of black politics can only be resolved through the development of multiclass, multiracial, progressive political structures.

The 'We Have Overcome' generation has run out of intellectual creativity but refuses to leave the political stage.

Gene Roberts, one of Malcolm's X chiefs of security, was an NYPD undercover cop. He later went on to bigger things by being a disruptive force inside of the Black Panther Party.

One of the major differences I see in the political climate today is that there is less collective support for coming to critical consciousness – in communities, in institutions, among friends.

Malcolm X represents the cutting edge of a kind of critique of globalization in the 21st century. In fact, Malcolm, if anything, was far ahead of the curve in so many ways.

No one wants to read poetry. You have to make it impossible for them to put the poem down--impossible for them to stop reading it, word after word. You have to keep them from closing the book.

An illusion can become a half-truth, a mask can alter the expression of a face.

Why should conversation always be so much more coherent than experience?

All good plots come from well-orchestrated characters pitted against one another in a conflict of wills.

Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you are already a masterpiece. You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it.

I used to look down on the world for being corrupt, but now I adore it for the utter magnificence of that corruption.

You can pretty much do it with anything. You can tell your life story with all the jeans you've worn, or every pair of shoes you've owned.

You can never correct your work well until you have forgotten it.

I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?

I'll finish a body of work and think, "Okay, I got nothing. That was it. I'm done." And then you'll turn a corner and be like, "Oh my God!" And it keeps happening. I feel so lucky.