We are to turn our backs for a space upon the insistent examination of the thing that is, and face towards the freer air, the ampler spaces of the thing that perhaps might be.

The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.

One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.

The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.

There must always be a remedy for wrong and injustice if we only know how to find it.

Virtue knows no color line.

Those who commit the murders write the reports.

I am only a mouthpiece through which to tell the story of lynching and I have told it so often that I know it by heart. I do not have to embellish; it makes its own way.

A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home.

The appeal to the white man's pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience.

The appetite grows for what it feeds on.

The world is full of educated derelicts

The more I learn, the more I yearn.

We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots ad executions. We kill every time we close our eyes to poverty, suffering and shame.

I've never gone for having a great voice, for cultivating one. I'm still not doing it now.

When you want it the most, there's no easy way out.When you're ready to go, and your heart's left in doubt. Don't give up on your faith, love comes to those who believe it...And that's the way it is.

I always embrace the worst-case scenario.

I always felt people should live with animals.

I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress.

When I try to describe myself to God I say, 'Lord, remember me? Black? Female? Six-foot tall? The writer?' And I almost always get God's attention.

My good films were independent and my bad films were not.