The patter of their feet as they walk through Jim Crow barriers to attend school is the thunder of the marching men of Joshua, and the world rocks beneath their tread.

My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you.

The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end the injustice.

The faces and the tactics of the leaders may change every four years, or two, or one, but the people go on forever.

As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.

Artists are the gate keepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.

In Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being. No color prejudice like in Mississippi, no color prejudice like in Washington. It was the first time I felt like a human being.

We ask for nothing that is not ours by right, and herein lies the great moral power of our demand.

Through my singing and acting and speaking, I want to make freedom ring. Maybe I can touch people's hearts better than I can their minds, with the common struggle of the common man.

My future depends mostly upon myself.

Art is not just to show life as it is, but to show life as it should be.

It's amazing how close I have been, all this time, to my old life. And yet the distance that divides me from it is vast.

In order to create, equilibrium must be broken.

There is such solace in the mere sight of water. It clothes us delicately in its blowing salt and scent, gossamer items that medicate the poor soul

Silence and invisibility go hand in hand with powerlessness.

I was never one who looked at success as bad. For me, success was always good. I loved it, and still do.

Tennis belongs to the individualistic past - a hero, or at most a pair of friends or lovers, against the world.

Being mad is activating. Being sad can lead to hopelessness. I'm not hopeless. I'm very hopeful.

I think the hardest part about my job is the best part of my job - the travel.

Humility is the light of the understanding.

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.