Though it be a thrilling and marvellous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so - doubly dynamic - to be young, gifted and black.

A woman who is willing to be herself and pursue her own potential runs not so much the risk of loneliness, as the challenge of exposure to more interesting men - and people in general.

One cannot live with sighted eyes and feeling heart and not know and read of the miseries which affect the world.

The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.

There is always something left to love. And if you haven't learned that, you ain't learned nothing.

Never be afraid to sit a while and think.

I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care.

Do I remain a revolutionary? Intellectually -- without a doubt. But am I prepared to give my body to the struggle or even my comforts? This is what I puzzle about.

This is one of the glories of man, the inventiveness of the human mind and the human spirit: whenever life doesn't seem to give an answer, we create one.

The grim possibility is that she who 'hides her brains' will, more than likely, end up with a mate who is only equal to a woman with 'hidden brains' or none at all.

Seems like God don't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams - but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile.

What is the difference between a dream and its memory?

Though many have tried no one has ever yet explained away the decisive fact that science which can do so much cannot decide what it ought to do.

Absolute faith can blind you to the consequences of the actions you allow. It can tell you it's okay to drop bombs on another country, or that it's okay to hate a group of people such as homosexuals.

Stories,' the green-eyed Sigrid said, unperturbed, 'are like prayers. It does not matter when you begin, or when you end, only that you bend a knee and say the words.

Most rich people are the poorest people I know.

The essential point of view of Christianity is sin.

When you actually meet the devil and he offers you a deal most artists eventually negotiate.

If kids are studying for a test, they're not going to learn anything. We all know that from our own experience.

New York in a way functions as another character within the story, as it does within most of Woody Allen's stories.

Love is . . . a madness most discreet