I grew to manhood in the Ohio State Penitentiary.

Our highest ambition is to be included in the stream of American life, to be permitted to "play the game" as any other American; and is opposed to anything that aids in the exclusion; the face may be Africa, but the heart has the beat of Wall Street.

Martyrs are needed to create incidents. Incidents are needed to create revolutions. Revolutions are needed to create progress.

I grew to manhood in the Ohio State Penitentiary.

Democracy is not tolerance. Democracy is a prescribed way of life erected on the premise that all men are created equal.

There is an indomitable quality within the human spirit that cannot be destroyed; a face deep within the human personality that is impregnable to all assaults.

I would sit in my room and become hysterical about the wild incredible story I was writing. And I thought I was writing realism. It never occurred to me that I was writing absurdity. Realism and absurdity are so similar in the lives of American blacks one cannot tell the difference.