The Negro is America's metaphor.

The impulse to dream was slowly beaten out of me by experience. Now it surged up again and I hungered for books, new ways of looking and seeing.

Men simply copied the realities of their hearts when they built prisons.

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.

Blues, spirituals, and folk tales recounted from mouth to mouth . . . all these formed the channels through which the racial wisdom flowed.

You'll be amazed how far your money will go.

The artist must bow to the monster of his own imagination.

I'd like to see the bay cleaned up before I die.

It's routine practice. There's nothing unique or unusual about it.