Never completely encircle your enemy. Leave him some escape, for he will fight even more desperately if trapped.

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage- to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.

Every time an old person dies, it's like a library burning down.

Tying the little folks with the older folks is a great and powerful tool to preserve and to protect the family and the individual.

That's what happens with writing. Ingredients bubble and cook. Material becomes substance.

Raw, naked truth exchanged between the black man and the white man is what a whole lot more of is needed in this country - to clear the air of the racial mirages, cliches, and lies that this country's very atmosphere has been filled with for four hundred years.

I think one of the most fascinating things you can do after you learn about your own people is to study something about the history and culture of other people.