[James] Baldwin said the real question is not when there will be the first Negro president in this country. The important question is what country he's going to be the president of.

Face your reality. You, black or white, are not innocent anymore. Either you have the courage to face it or you will go down together with the whole idea of the American Dream.

Just try to be yourself and resist complacency and ignorance. All you can do is work, work; work and be disciplined.

The system gives you two minutes to phrase a whole history.

There are only one or two geniuses every century.

You need to react. That's the absurdity of Twitter. You can react without thinking now.

I just hope that my films will survive me.

[James] Baldwin is needed even more today because he helps you focus to the essential, to what is important.

[James] Baldwin "was one of greatest intellectuals of his time. He was an important voice, period, not an important black voice."

Today, I don't even think that people like [James Baldwin] are possible. He would not have that much room.

Your tweet is as important as if you would have written a Ph.D. [dissertation] on the subject.

Elizabeth, you resemble nothing so much as a hen trying to hatch a book.

He’d seen a lot of bizarre items left at gravesides, like a carton of eggs, a pair of reading glasses, a bag of licorice, smooth stones, a spoon.

To dream in doctrines, how tidy!

There ain't nothing but one thing wrong with every one of us and that's selfishness.

For many, Christmas is also a time for coming together. But for others, service will come first.

I [had] added another small piece to the pages of the atlas that were real to me.

If we do not end war - war will end us. Everybody says that, millions of people believe it, and nobody does anything.

Remember that almost everything looks better after a good night's sleep.

Life is amazing, life is odd. Life is not what you expected it to be. Things happen... Growing up takes longer than you think.

I should wish to die if a man who is impure should parade his purity in front of me.